THE BOSS DOG: A Story of Provence...

THE BOSS DOG: A Story of Provence by M. F .K. Fisher (Pantheon: $10.). This delightful series of sketches chronicles the misadventures of an American mother and her two small daughters during an eventful year in Aix. As they develop friendships with restaurant proprietors and cafe waiters, they continue to encounter the jaunty title character (who has far too much aplomb to follow anyone around). More than any human acquaintance, it is the nonchalant mongrel who frees the visitors from the uncomfortable sensation of being strangers in a strange land: “The mother felt that instead of being tourists drifting about, they had suddenly GOT someplace, that they were indeed THERE, besides just staying in a decorous boarding house.” Fisher’s charming book would be ideal to read aloud, enabling parents and children to share the warmly delineated relationships the girls enjoy with their mother, their friends, the lovely city of Aix and, of course, the irrepressible Boss Dog.