We know the brilliant writer of the Rougon-Macquart series and the committed author of the open letter "J'accuse...!" but what do we know about his private life? Who were the women in his life? How did they help him to accomplish his work? At what sacrifice? A remarkable fresco that takes us back to the end of the 19th century, to the heart of an ever-changing France and the city of Paris, full of artists and workers.

A little girl hesitates to initiate a friendship with her new neighbor Zola because she imagines Zola is busy with another friend--an elephant.

Chance was only two years old when the Poormans discovered him asleep on a grassy mound just outside the polluted industrial city of Littleton. They searched high and low for the boys parents, but to no avail. When no one claimed him, they accepted him into their lives and loved him as their own. Despite the Poormans kindness, Chance lives a miserable life. At seven years old, he is small for his agethe smallest boy in first grade, as a matter of factand his peers picked on him mercilessly. Lonely and abandoned, Chance has nothing but his size and the mysterious clay amulet that was around his neck when the Poormans found him to help him learn who his birth parents really were. His circumstances seem hopeless. Little does Chance know, however, that Mrs. Poormans strange meeting with a mysterious street merchant who clomps when he walks will change his life forever. Their meeting is no coincidence. Later, the same merchant leads Chance through a portal to another worldChances home world, the magical place in which he was born but cannot remember. As Chance explores this once-peaceful land, his adventures lead him to many wondrous creatures and bring him unbreakable friendships and the opportunity to fulfill his destiny to save this world from a dark and treacherous evil.