Les Miz for Kids

Kids too can enjoy Les Miz! IMHO, the plot (minus all of the "digressions") is simpler than The Count of Monte Cristo, so I think it's possible to whittle it down into a smaller package, perfect for a bedtime story.

There will be some awkward moments- explaining to the kiddos: "Mom/Dad, what's a prostitute?" or all of those convent deprivations: "Mom/Dad, does God hate toothbrushes and bathing? Is bath time a sin?" or the kiddos pointing out the obvious, "Mom/Dad, why is Marius such a dunce? He doesn't know who the King is, can't write a love letter, doesn't try too hard to stop someone from getting tortured and robbed, and keeps giving money to the worst person in the book!" Parental Unit: (awkward silence).

Kids versions of the book usually dispense with the prostitution stuff and gritty details about life at the convent (even some abridged grownup versions edit that out), but there's no covering up that Marius is a dunce. 

• Place Name Censorship: "Bishop of Digne" is censored as "Bishop of D-". "Montreuil-sur-Mer" as "M-sur-M-".
• Language Style: Several abridged books contain words that are no longer in standard usage, untranslated French words/sentences or long, complicated sentences that need to be read twice to comprehend it.
  
• Victor Hugo Rhetorical Questions (VHRQ): There are multiple instances in the text where Hugo asks (the reader) inane questions like, "Where is he/she going?" "Where was he/she?" "What was he/she doing?" "Why is that here?"

The Story of Les Miserables. 140 pages (126 pages for the story), adapted by Isabel C. Fortey. 1922, pub. Blackie & Son Ltd. Word count: Approx 35,000. Keeps the place-name censorship Language style is Modernized VHRQ: Deleted Fantine's tragic story appears, but only in a few short paragraphs. Cosette's origins are explained as: "[Fantine's] husband deserted her." (⮜Noooo!) And "Fantine was fired because other factory girls were jealous of her beauty and they made up stories about her." (⮜Noooo!) So we are looking at a sanitized version of the story, no doubt. The coverage of Cosette's misery as an indentured servant at the Thenn's inn is very good- it should be: 12 pages (out of 140!) But Valjean's rescue of her is only one paragraph, with the Thenns being unusually cooperative and Valjean doesn't need to tell them off or show any forcefulness. Being a children's book, the austerities of convent life were deleted. But this particular book has one of the best, most entertaining re-tellings of the complete "Convent Coffin Caper"! It has stories of little Gavroche's street adventures, but the pages used means that Marius' story, his Daddy issues, his voluntary poverty, his gradual radicalization, his intro to the Friends of the ABC, and the reasons for the barricade and the revolt are all skipped over, which are far more important than Gavroche's adventures.   While Enjolras and Gavroche (⮜in an unusually prominent role) are manning the barricades, the revolt is easily losing. Marius just appears out of nowhere, his 2 tiny pistols a-blazin'. Why? What's the revolt to him? Does he even KNOW these rebels? He barely knew Cosette, allegedly "fell in love", never had a conversation with her, yet somehow knew her address so he could send a farewell note to her. Valjean intercepts the letter and then there's an exposition dump, referring to a courtship we'd never seen nor heard of before. Eponine's character arc is dropped. The revolt fails, Enjolras is executed by impromptu firing squad (⮜eye-openingly violent for a book that's been, up 'til now, pretty toothless). Marius is wounded, Valjean rescues him and goes through the sewers, Javert's suicide etc. Then the last page (!) shows Marius' grandpa approving his marriage to Cosette. Valjean (for his own, unmentioned reasons) refuses to live with them, saw Cosette only occasionally and dies soon afterwards "with Marius and Cosette by his side". The Verdict: The intended audience was Grade 3 & 4 (ages 8-9?) back in the 1920's. Money is converted into pre-decimal English currency, making it even harder for us to understand how much things cost, or how much the various bribes are worth. It becomes "The Gavroche Show" when the real story belongs to Valjean and Marius and the sacrifices they'd made (sometimes foolishly) for what they believed in. ✅ 1-The Bishop of Digne is a Great Guy ❌ 2-Love 'em Leave 'em Boys entertain, then abandon their girlfriends ✂ 3-Fantine sells her teeth and becomes a prostitute ✅ 4-The ship Orion and Valjean's faked death ✅ 5-Cosette and the doll ❌ 6-Thenn chases after Valjean, wanting Cosette back. Valjean blows him off with Fantine's claim letter. ✅ 7-Javert disguises as a beggar/Gorbeau House ✅ 8-Valjean's "Convent Coffin Caper" ✂ 9-Waterloo: Thenn saves Pontmercy ❌ 10-Valjean & Cosette leave convent and move to Rue Plumet in Paris ❌ 11-Eponine/Cosette/Marius Love Triangle ✅ 12-Thenn and thug buddies ambush Valjean in his tenement, and attempt to rob and extort him. ❌ 13-Eponine dies saving Marius ✅ 14-Thenn unlocks the sewers for Valjean for a bribe ❌ 15-Thenn's greed accidentally ends the estrangement between Marius, Cosette and Valjean. They reconcile as Valjean is dying. ❌ 16-Thenn's fate Adaptation Deviation Score: None. All of the text is directly from Hugo, but missing a few important things as far as the Main Plot.

Les Miserables. 113 pages (100 pages for the story), adapted by Monica Kulling. 1995, pub. Step-Into Classics/Random House. Word count: Approx 16,000. Removes the place-name censorship. Town names spelled out in-full Language style is Modernized VHRQ: Deleted Well, this is an oddball book. At only 113 pages, this is meant for the younger set, which is fine... it's great when kids can be introduced to The Classics. This is weird because it's written in the first person- Jean Valjean's POV. The premise is that he's nearing his end, and the light of Heaven is beckoning so he's writing his story (or re-writing Les Miz) for his dear Cosette. Hmmm, so he's not on his last legs, and he has the time, energy and mental clarity to write all this before he expires... ummm... right... But by the third chapter, even this premise starts slipping with Fantine's story, and Cosette (who this is being addressed to) is referred to in the third person (as "Cosette") instead of the second-person ("you"). So Cosette, upon reading this, would ask, "Daddy? Why are you telling me my own story? Why are you referring to me as "Cosette"? Is this a letter meant for me, or are you writing a book to be published?" By the time this reaches Valjean's rescue of Cosette from the Thenns, the writing style sloppily bounces back and forth between the second and third person re: Cosette- "You were carrying a big bucket of water", and then, "The girl looked up, unafraid. She trusted me". Valjean "would have been happy if Cosette wanted to become a nun" (???) They left the convent because she "finished school" (???) The Thenns, now broke, have taken the new name "Fabantou" as their primary one (not Jondrette) (???) while holding and extorting Valjean. And, yet another case of Eponine's "The cops are coming" note appearing out of nowhere. Thenn and his thug buds flee, and apparently were never arrested. The whole Student Revolt thing is only skimmed over, as expected, because Valjean would have no way of getting Marius' account, as they were never close enough to have a long talk and fill in each other's blanks. Eponine is a non-entity at this point. Events are explained in some vague way that somehow Valjean "learned" about Eponine's note and Javert's suicide (how? when? didn't he become a shut-in?), and Marius magically figures out what Valjean had done for him (how?), and everybody reconciles at the end, seconds before Valjean dies. The Verdict: Sigh. Nice attempt at Les Miz for Kids, but this also exposes the weakness of having the entire story told only from Valjean's POV. Marius becomes the primary character in the entire second half of the real Les Miz, and Valjean can't possibly tell Marius' story and the Student Revolt, given his awkward lack of communication with his son-in-law. ❌ 1-The Bishop of Digne is a Great Guy ❌ 2-Love 'em Leave 'em Boys entertain, then abandon their girlfriends ✂ 3-Fantine sells her teeth and becomes a prostitute ✅ 4-The ship Orion and Valjean's faked death ✅ 5-Cosette and the doll ✅ 6-Thenn chases after Valjean, wanting Cosette back. Valjean blows him off with Fantine's claim letter. ✅ 7-Javert disguises as a beggar/Gorbeau House ❌ 8-Valjean's "Convent Coffin Caper" ❌ 9-Waterloo: Thenn saves Pontmercy ✅ 10-Valjean & Cosette leave convent and move to Rue Plumet in Paris ❌ 11-Eponine/Cosette/Marius Love Triangle ✅ 12-Thenn and thug buddies ambush Valjean in his tenement, and attempt to rob and extort him. ❌ 13-Eponine dies saving Marius ✅ 14-Thenn unlocks the sewers for Valjean for a bribe ✂ 15-Thenn's greed accidentally ends the estrangement between Marius, Cosette and Valjean. They reconcile as Valjean is dying. ❌ 16-Thenn's fate Adaptation Deviation Score: Not bad. It only makes deviations to quickly and simply explain how certain events happened, because the true reasons were dropped for space purposes.

Les Miserables. 97 pages, adapted by Helen Mailhot. 1999, pub. Mosaic Press. Word count: Approx 33,000. Removes the place-name censorship. Town names spelled out in-full Language style is Modernized VHRQ: Present, but minimized The Introduction in this book states a pretty ambitious goal: "includes all the characters and all the subplots that weave into the main story" and "endeavo(u)red to remain faithful to Hugo's spirit, intent, structure and style". It has an extremely helpful Timeline and Character List, which are kind of spoilers, so it's best to read them AFTER finishing the book. So, diving into the text... it's pleasantly modernized, and there's only a few words that children might need to look up. It flows very well, and is easy to understand.  This has a good account of Fantine's life, from her misplaced love for Tholomyes, to her desperation, to her tragic and miserable end. Valjean's rescue of Cosette is well-detailed, including the coda, where M. Thenn tries to get her back, and is rebuffed when Valjean hands him Fantine's claim note. When it's necessary later on for Valjean and Cosette to take refuge at the Petit-Picpus convent, a complete "Convent Coffin Caper" is told, as well as a paragraph acknowledging the severity of convent rules for the nuns, the nuns kindness and goodness, and how two of God's houses were there for Valjean when he needed help the most. This is all done in a way that is not preachy, and satisfactory to religious and secular readers alike. Going in to Marius' life and backstory, it explains what happened to his Dad at Waterloo, and about Grandpa Gillenormand and Marius' Family Drama political conflicts. Little Gavroche has a backstory, saves his little brothers from the mean streets AND his escaped-con father (M. Thenn) and heads over to the barricades. And now... on to the barricades. This section goes too fast. The right Plot Points are hit- Marius and the powder keg, Gavroche and Eponine's heroic deaths, but it seems that the entire revolt only exists for its impact on the Main Characters. The Friends of the ABC are barely present, don't have any real relationship with Marius, and don't really have any action of their own. We hardly see them at all, and their fates are never resolved. All we know is that "the barricade was captured in the final attack". Once the book course-corrects and gets back to Valjean, Javert, Marius and Cosette, with the sewers, Javert's suicide, the wedding, the estrangement, M. Thenn's role in the reconciliation and Valjean's death, everything that we could possibly want in the story is present, including M. Thenn's complete fate, and Valjean's gravestone epitaph. The Verdict: For the coverage of the Major and Minor Plot Points... definitely earns a 5 star rating! I also appreciate that Helen Mailhot didn't censor Fantine's story for political correctness. This is less than 100 pages and covers everything- the perfect introduction to Les Miz for children. The story of the Student Revolt is kinda skimpy, but children who love this version of the story will eventually graduate to the full experience in a longer, or unabridged edition. ✅ 1-The Bishop of Digne is a Great Guy ✅ 2-Love 'em Leave 'em Boys entertain, then abandon their girlfriends ✅ 3-Fantine sells her teeth and becomes a prostitute ✅ 4-The ship Orion and Valjean's faked death ✅ 5-Cosette and the doll ✅ 6-Thenn chases after Valjean, wanting Cosette back. Valjean blows him off with Fantine's claim letter. ✅ 7-Javert disguises as a beggar/Gorbeau House ✅ 8-Valjean's "Convent Coffin Caper" ✅ 9-Waterloo: Thenn saves Pontmercy ✅ 10-Valjean & Cosette leave convent and move to Rue Plumet in Paris ✅ 11-Eponine/Cosette/Marius Love Triangle ✅ 12-Thenn and thug buddies ambush Valjean in his tenement, and attempt to rob and extort him. ✅ 13-Eponine dies saving Marius ✅ 14-Thenn unlocks the sewers for Valjean for a bribe ✅ 15-Thenn's greed accidentally ends the estrangement between Marius, Cosette and Valjean. They reconcile as Valjean is dying. ✅ 16-Thenn's fate Adaptation Deviation Score: None. Truly Victor Hugo's story.

Les Miserables. 116 pages (97 pages for the story), retold by Chris Rice. 2002, pub. Penguin Books/Pearson Education Ltd. Word count: Approx 35,000. Removes the place-name censorship. Town names spelled out in-full Language style is Modernized VHRQ: Deleted From Penguin Readers (not Penguin Classics!), the same people who brought us the crappy fan-fiction-y "Level 3: The Count of Monte Cristo". But their Les Miz is level 6, so maybe it might be better? It says it's based on Norman Denny's 1976 translation. I flipped the book open. Ok then... 97 pages of story, with educational activities in the back, all text with no color photos from TV shows or movies. The text looks good... requires a decent vocabulary and I admire Chris Rice (adapter) for including Fantine's fall and the increasingly desperate measures (selling her teeth, prostitution) she took to earn money for Cosette's care. All without beating around the bush or using euphemisms! Once it goes past the Champmathieu Affair, important parts of the story start getting lopped off. Valjean isn't sent to the ship Orion. He just escapes from prison after allowing Javert to arrest him. The townspeople just go, "Meh." Javert should be incensed and obsessed (Valjean being alive, on the run with no faked death), but we never see that. Valjean heads over to Montfermeil to get Cosette from the Thenns. Then they settle at Gorbeau House for a bit, have to flee Javert, but bypass the convent entirely, ending up in a home somewhere near Luxembourg Gardens. The story then shifts to Marius. Enjolras makes a premature entrance, as Marius' best bud (???) who encourages Marius to go out and find a girlfriend (???). Marius spots Cosette accompanied by her "father" (Valjean). Marius is in love. But Cosette and her "dad" move away and he's dejected. At this point, he should have read up on his Dad's heroics serving Napoleon, turned into a "Bonapartist Republican" and should have made acquaintances with the "Friends of the ABC" but this book deletes that entire section. The reasons for the 1832 revolt are stated, but the book gives the impression that the leaderless crowd just kind of spontaneously started the fighting on their own. Enjolras and his (un-named) friends just join in and start building barricades. Then it says that he's a leader of the rebels, which is a surprise because all this time, Enjolras was only concerned with finding girls and entertaining diversions for his pal, Marius (???). The Revolt goes as badly as expected, allowing Eponine to do her heroic save of Marius. The remainder of the book covers the rest of the major Plot Points very well, missing only Thenn's future occupation as a slave-trader (⮜I approve of this omission) and Valjean's epitaph, scrawled on his gravestone. The Verdict: Considering that this is less than 100 pages, it's pretty good. There seems to be a considerable difference between Penguin Readers' Level 3 (like Monte Cristo) and Level 6 (like Les Miz), where some of the grimmer aspects of the original are allowed to be included, the book is text-based and not 50% pictures and it doesn't need a fake, made-up happy ending!. But for older kids at this reading level (age 11-12?), a far better choice is Mary Ansaldo's "Adapted Classic" (Globe Book Co.) or Helen Mailhot's 1999 adaptation (Mosaic Press). ❌ 1-The Bishop of Digne is a Great Guy ❌ 2-Love 'em Leave 'em Boys entertain, then abandon their girlfriends ✅ 3-Fantine sells her teeth and becomes a prostitute ❌ 4-The ship Orion and Valjean's faked death ✅ 5-Cosette and the doll ❌ 6-Thenn chases after Valjean, wanting Cosette back. Valjean blows him off with Fantine's claim letter. ✅ 7-Javert disguises as a beggar/Gorbeau House ❌ 8-Valjean's "Convent Coffin Caper" ✅ 9-Waterloo: Thenn saves Pontmercy ✅ 10-Valjean & Cosette leave convent and move to Rue Plumet in Paris ✅ 11-Eponine/Cosette/Marius Love Triangle ✅ 12-Thenn and thug buddies ambush Valjean in his tenement, and attempt to rob and extort him. ✅ 13-Eponine dies saving Marius ✅ 14-Thenn unlocks the sewers for Valjean for a bribe ✅ 15-Thenn's greed accidentally ends the estrangement between Marius, Cosette and Valjean. They reconcile as Valjean is dying. ✂ 16-Thenn's fate Adaptation Deviation Score: Minor. I'm just not fond of Enjolras' kinder, gentler personality transplant, and the Student Revolt just seems to be so random.

Les Miserables. 56 pages (44 pages for the story), retold by Jennifer Bassett. 2012, pub. Oxford University Press. Word Count: 7,300. Removes the place-name censorship. Town names spelled out in-full Language style is Modernized VHRQ: Present, but minimized The back cover blurb states factually that "this story for Bookworms is loosely based on the famous novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo." And "loosely based" is quite correct! It's very simplified and seems to be aimed at children ages 3-6. It also exposes the conundrum that Les Miz is not a happy tale, and the more it gets modified to make it suitable for the very young, the less it resembles its source. There's a good deal of watering-down and the removal of the original's constant barrage of "man's inhumanity to man", sadness and misery (⮜which was Victor Hugo's point!). So, in addition to missing a few Plot Points, the re-telling had made some story changes: The people of Digne saw Valjean carrying around silver plates and called the police. There's no Champmathieu Affair, so Javert just marches into Fantine's room and arrests Mayor Madeleine for being Jean Valjean. Because he's omniscient? One of Valjean's crimes was stealing one franc from a little boy in Toulon, to buy bread. Once Valjean takes Cosette away from the Thenns, they never reappear. The reason why Valjean took Cosette to the "girl's school" (convent?) was because he saw Javert by the river. Marius and Gavroche are friends. Marius even recruits Gavroche to find out Cosette's address. Valjean decides to move himself and Cosette to England because it's too dangerous to stay in Paris with angry people, police and soldiers on the streets. Gavroche is the one to tell Marius to join his friends at the barricades. Eponine doesn't exist so Gavroche delivers Cosette's letter to Marius. There's no sewers. Valjean just carries Marius around the back streets. That's where Javert finds him. After Cosette and Marius' wedding, there is no estrangement with Valjean. His time has come (naturally) so he summons the couple to bless them and dies. The Verdict: This might be a good pairing with Cozy Classics: Les Miz, so parents won't need to come up with their own child-friendly version of the story. But still, in just a few years, these same kids will be ready for their first taste of the real deal, in Helen Mailhot's 1999 version (Mosaic Press), which doesn't pull punches. ❌ 1-The Bishop of Digne is a Great Guy ✂ 2-Love 'em Leave 'em Boys entertain, then abandon their girlfriends ❌ 1-Fantine sells her teeth and becomes a prostitute ❌ 2-The ship Orion and Valjean's faked death ❌ 3-Cosette and the doll ❌ 4-Thenn chases after Valjean, wanting Cosette back. Valjean blows him off with Fantine's claim letter. ❌ 5-Javert disguises as a beggar/Gorbeau House ❌ 6-Valjean's "Convent Coffin Caper" ❌ 7-Waterloo: Thenn saves Pontmercy ✅ 8-Valjean & Cosette leave convent and move to Rue Plumet in Paris ❌ 9-Eponine/Cosette/Marius Love Triangle ❌ 10-Thenn and thug buddies ambush Valjean in his tenement, and attempt to rob and extort him. ❌ 11-Eponine dies saving Marius ❌ 12-Thenn unlocks the sewers for Valjean for a bribe ❌ 13-Thenn's greed accidentally ends the estrangement between Marius, Cosette and Valjean. They reconcile as Valjean is dying. ❌ 14-Thenn's fate Adaptation Deviation Score: Moderate. There's enough of Les Miz remaining to make it recognizable, but the deviations entirely changed characters' relationships and motivations.

Les Miserables. 64 pages (58 pages for the story), retold and illustrated by Marcia Williams. 2015, pub. Candlewick press (US), Walker Books (UK). Word count: Approx 6,300. Removes the place-name censorship. Town names spelled out in-full Language style is Modernized VHRQ: Deleted This is really, really adorable! It's a hybrid of storybook and graphic novel. It's in full color, and drawn cartoon style. There's so much detail packed into each page. Even the borders are full of cute little mice, dogs, kittens, birdies, insects going about their business... cats chasing mice, mice stealing bread, a dead pig (???) that looks like it's squished, etc. The crowded story panels are worth hunting for little Easter Eggs, sorta like "Where's Waldo"... at the barricades, there's a green, bloody human hand poking out from under the rock pile (!!!) I really love the wit in the illustrations. As Marius falls in love with Cosette, he becomes somewhat of a stalker: hiding behind a pile of leaves, climbing a tree to peer down at her, disguising as a duck and lurking in the park's duck pond (!), placing his face in the middle of a giant sunflower. It does sort of misrepresent Enjolras as Marius' "friend", but it at least provides a decent transition (without Waterloo and Marius' Grandpa and Daddy issues, or his inherited "debt" to M. Thenn) to his involvement with "the Friends of the ABC". Enjolras: "Forget her! Join les Amis de l'ABC and help the poor." Once the Jondrettes (Thenns) enter the picture, we can see for ourselves the squalor they live in. This is one of the advantages of graphic storytelling: A split panel shows how disgusting and filthy the Jondrettes keep their flat, while, in contrast, Marius keeps his humble abode clean. And apparently, living above ground is a blessing- the illustrations show that people live in even worse conditions underground with even more rats! The Revolt fails, all Marius' rebel friends are killed, and Valjean rescues a wounded Marius and takes him into the sewers. Anyone who'd played the "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" 90's era PC game will get flashbacks, with the Paris sewers looking very reminiscent of Indy's trip through the catacombs. Marius gradually recovers and marries Cosette and becomes a douche by "doing everything in his power to make Valjean's visits with Cosette uncomfortable" (⮜correct!). Cosette: "Should we call on Father?" Marius: (turning up his nose) "I think not." Just like the "real book", M.Thenn accidentally tells Marius that Valjean saved his life, so Marius and Cosette rush to visit a dying Valjean. Valjean says he loves them both and dies happily and the book ends with a proper epitaph for him! The Verdict: It is aimed at younger readers, of course, maybe 6-11 year olds. Or adults who'd appreciate some humor and the sense of fun that's usually absent in such a "heavy" book. This needs to be purchased as a physical book, not an ebook. I read it first as an ebook, but holding the physical book in my hands, turning the pages and not needing a "zoom-in" feature was a far superior experience. ❌ 1-The Bishop of Digne is a Great Guy ❌ 2-Love 'em Leave 'em Boys entertain, then abandon their girlfriends ✂ 3-Fantine sells her teeth and becomes a prostitute ✅ 4-The ship Orion and Valjean's faked death ✅ 5-Cosette and the doll ❌ 6-Thenn chases after Valjean, wanting Cosette back. Valjean blows him off with Fantine's claim letter. ✂ 7-Javert disguises as a beggar/Gorbeau House ❌ 8-Valjean's "Convent Coffin Caper" ❌ 9-Waterloo: Thenn saves Pontmercy ✅ 10-Valjean & Cosette leave convent and move to Rue Plumet in Paris ✅ 11-Eponine/Cosette/Marius Love Triangle ✅ 12-Thenn and thug buddies ambush Valjean in his tenement, and attempt to rob and extort him. ✅ 13-Eponine dies saving Marius ✅ 14-Thenn unlocks the sewers for Valjean for a bribe ✅ 15-Thenn's greed accidentally ends the estrangement between Marius, Cosette and Valjean. They reconcile as Valjean is dying. ❌ 16-Thenn's fate Adaptation Deviation Score: Minor. It's as accurate as one can reasonably expect for a children's book, aside from portraying Enjolras and Marius as "friends".

Cozy Classics: Les Miserables. 24 pages, adapted by Jack & Holman Wang. 2016, pub. Chronicle Books. Word count: 12. This book is aimed at BABIES and TODDLERS. No joke. It has a total of twelve story pages, and 12 words. I'll be a meany and list the entire book's text contents right here: "poor", "rich", "sad", "happy", "run", "climb", "stroll", "love", "fire", "stop", "dark", "together". So yeah, a little context is missing... just a little...🤣. I'm really thinking that the idea is to give the book to a toddler, and the parent would fill in the story details (by using one of the other Les Miz children's text-based books) as the kid "reads along". So, while the child looks at "poor" and a picture of a beautifully-made felt figurine of Jean Valjean with a knapsack, tattered clothes and a walking stick, the parent would say, "Look! It's Jean Valjean. He's been freed from jail, and he's walking. But nobody in the town will give him food or shelter. A nice old lady tells him to visit the Bishop..." The reason for buying this book is for the pictures of the hand-crafted figures made by using the technique of wool felting. It's an art all by itself and requires a lot of patience and hours of jabbing clumps of felt with a special needle. That's how Valjean, Cosette, Javert, Marius were made, not to mention making the buildings, bricks, and in-scale miniature props AND rigging up lighting for tiny lamps. The miniatures are beautiful work. The Verdict: A totally original approach to introducing Les Miz to very young children. I think it would have been a good idea to include a script for grownups to explain the meaning of the pictures and to have an actual story to read instead of needing to buy/borrow/download another book to provide that. Or, read my "Les Miz for Toddlers" page! [Plot Points Table deleted due to being not applicable] Adaptation Deviation Score: N/A. There's not enough words in the book to tell the story.

Les Miserables. nnn pages, adapted by xxxxxxxx. 19xx, pub. XXXXXXXXXXXXX. Removes the place-name censorship Language style is Modernized VHRQ: Deleted Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. ❌ 1-The Bishop of Digne is a Great Guy ❌ 2-Love 'em Leave 'em Boys entertain, then abandon their girlfriends ❌ 1-Fantine sells her teeth and becomes a prostitute ❌ 2-The ship Orion and Valjean's faked death ❌ 3-Cosette and the doll ✂ 4-Thenn chases after Valjean, wanting Cosette back. Valjean blows him off with Fantine's claim letter. ❌ 5-Javert disguises as a beggar/Gorbeau House ❌ 6-Valjean's "Convent Coffin Caper" ❌ 7-Waterloo: Thenn saves Pontmercy ✅ 8-Valjean & Cosette leave convent and move to Rue Plumet in Paris ❌ 9-Eponine/Cosette/Marius Love Triangle ❌ 10-Thenn and thug buddies ambush Valjean in his tenement, and attempt to rob and extort him. ❌ 11-Eponine dies saving Marius ✅ 12-Thenn unlocks the sewers for Valjean for a bribe ❌ 13-Thenn's greed accidentally ends the estrangement between Marius, Cosette and Valjean. They reconcile as Valjean is dying. ❌ 14-Thenn's fate Adaptation Deviation Score: