Anybody Here Seen Frenchie?

In rural coastal Maine, 11-year-old Aurora Pauline Petrequin is an energetic, outspoken girl who has always struggled to fit in. She talks too much, moves too fast, and has never been good at keeping still. Her best friend, Frenchie Livernois, is her opposite in many ways: He does not speak and communicates through subtle body language, such as fist squeezes when impatient, a jutting chin when refusing something, and hand-flapping when happy. Aurora met Frenchie three years earlier, when he and his mother, Gracia, moved into the small house beside the A-frame where Aurora lives with her parents, Rene and Ed (Pop). Gracia brought Frenchie to Maine to mainstream him in public school, and Aurora quickly became his "special person," the one who learned to read his behavior when other children ignored him entirely.

Aurora and Frenchie share a love of the natural world. Aurora is always searching for tourmaline, while Frenchie is devoted to birds, flapping his hands and whistling whenever he spots one. He carries a needlepoint purse that Gracia purchased from a local flea market vendor. Over the years, the two families have grown close. Aurora taught Frenchie to swim at Pebble Nest, the family's old beach house on Flanders Bay, by appealing to his love of the sun and coaxing him to lie back on the water and feel it on his face. When Aurora's younger brother, Cedar, was adopted, Gracia and Frenchie helped like family. Cedar has chronic ear infections that have delayed his speech; his words often sound right to him but are unclear to others.

As sixth grade approaches, Aurora discovers she and Frenchie have been assigned to different classrooms for the first time. During back-to-school shopping, she meets two new girls who will be in her class: Joanie Waller, from New Jersey, and Leena Virani, from Atlanta. The three quickly bond over the final days of summer. At school, Frenchie receives a new classroom aide, Mr. Menkis, who places bird identification cards on Frenchie's desk. Leena introduces Preposterous Pursuits, a notebook of recess challenges designed for teamwork, including a daily hundred-yard dash that Aurora and Frenchie have been running together.

Aurora finds herself torn between her new friendships and her responsibility to Frenchie. By the third day of school, the tension becomes too much: Frenchie shuts down on the playground, folding into a ball with his arms over his head. Mr. Menkis arrives calmly and reassures Aurora that having new friends does not mean leaving someone behind.

On the first Friday of September, Pop drives Aurora, Frenchie, and Cedar to school instead of their usual bus because Cedar has a doctor's appointment. In the drop-off circle, Cedar bounces in his car seat, crying "Bye-baw! Bye-baw!" and pointing, but no one understands him. Aurora walks into the building with Joanie and Leena, forgetting to make sure Frenchie reaches his classroom. A chapter from Frenchie's perspective shows him standing alone in the narrow side yard, waiting for Aurora to come back. She does not.

When Mr. Menkis cannot find Frenchie, the school goes into lockdown. Aurora realizes she never walked Frenchie to his room and is devastated, calling the lapse a "Worst Possible," her term for a mistake so serious that only a time machine could fix it. Students begin posting messages for Frenchie on the ever-changing-tree mural in the lobby. Aurora adds her own: "I owe you an apology. Please come get it" (135).

The town organizes a search headquartered at the Fire and Rec Center, led by Chief Nash. Volunteers receive maps and a tracking app that records searched areas, and the search fans out from the school in triangular sectors. After more than an hour, a new lead emerges: Carney Huggins, the boyfriend of Anzie Maylord, a local blueberry farmer, reports that he may have seen Frenchie on Punkinville Road that morning. Carney had braked when a strange spotted deer leaped into the road, and while sitting in his truck, he glimpsed a flash of plaid crossing behind his vehicle.

Jewell Laramie, a local hunter who knows the woods intimately, connects the sighting to established deer trails. She traces a path on the digital map from near the school to a deer resting area and argues that Frenchie may be following the same trails the deer use. The search redirects accordingly.

Chapters from Frenchie's perspective confirm what happened. He spotted the piebald deer, a rare spotted deer he and Aurora had encountered before in Sundrop Meadow near their homes, from the school's side yard and followed it into the woods. In the deer's resting area, he ate his lunch and fell asleep beside the sleeping piebald. He heard searchers calling his name but stayed quiet because the deer was resting.

The first day's search ends without finding Frenchie. Aurora cannot sleep and insists that Pop take her and Cedar to clean Pebble Nest the next day so that Mom can stay with Gracia on the search. Saturday morning brings a larger crowd of volunteers. That afternoon, while Aurora and Pop clean Pebble Nest, Cedar tugs on Aurora's hand at the beach and says, "En-chee en bye-baw dee-yah." She finally hears it: Frenchie and piebald deer. Before she can process the revelation, Pop runs from the house shouting that Frenchie has been spotted.

Ezelda Trink, an artist who owns a granite quarry, has found him. While drinking afternoon tea overlooking the deep-water quarry, she noticed a needlepoint purse dangling from a sapling on the high granite wall and then spotted a small figure huddled on a narrow ledge at the water's edge. She called 911 immediately.

Frenchie had followed the piebald deer to the top of the quarry ledge, where the loose rock crumbled beneath his feet. He tumbled down the granite face, losing his shoes and his purse. His pants caught on something underwater. Submerged in the cold quarry, he remembered Aurora's swimming lessons: He wriggled free, kicked to the surface, and floated on his back, face to the sun, just as she taught him. He pulled himself onto a small ledge and survived the night.

Mr. Menkis rappels down to assess Frenchie. The rescue team debates whether to ferry him across the quarry on a backboard or lift him up. Gracia warns that Frenchie cannot tolerate restraint, and Aurora shouts, "Pull him up! He loves up!" (298). Carney silences the debate: "Listen to the girl. She knows that boy as well as anyone" (298). Chief Nash authorizes the vertical lift.

Mr. Menkis helps Frenchie into a climbing harness and calls commands as the rescue team hauls them up in a tandem lift. Aurora flaps her hands and tweets, shouting "BE THE BIRD!" (301). One by one, the crowd on the rim joins in, flapping and tweeting in chorus. Frenchie and Mr. Menkis reach the top safely. Gracia embraces her son, whispering, "Sun. My. Sun. Love. You. So. Much. My. Sun" (304), and an ATV takes them to an ambulance.

As Aurora's family walks out along the trail at sunset, the piebald deer appears in the woods. Aurora spots Jewell crouching nearby and, fearing she intends to shoot, hurls her geode to scare the deer away. Jewell assures her she was only admiring the rare creature. Mr. Menkis retrieves Frenchie's needlepoint purse from the quarry wall and gives it to Aurora to return to Frenchie. A brief chapter from Cedar's perspective reveals that he saw both the piebald deer and Frenchie leaving the school from the car that morning and tried to tell Pop, but no one understood his words.

Two weeks later, Frenchie has healed. Aurora leads her friends up Sundrop Meadow to Anzie's farm for pumpkin picking. They stand before the barn painted with Anzie's poem and shout it together, laughing until they collapse. Only Frenchie remains standing, his face tilted up to the sun. Aurora watches from the ground, content simply to be beside him. In a final chapter from Frenchie's perspective, his thoughts reveal what they always do when the sun is on his face: "SUN SUN SUN" (322).