In the late 1950s I was attending a school in NYC. 8th grade, I think. Mondays & Wednesdays we had French class for an hour. Tuesdays & Thursdays we had German. (On Fridays, no lang. class, we got out of school an hour early.) I did well in German, but the French instructor was awful. He spent the whole hour with his back to the class, writing irregular verbs on the blackboard. That year, only reading in French class(book under desktop) I managed to go all the way through Huck Finn 3 times. And in April was able to compose my French essay quickly. 4 words--"Le printemps et ici."--as I remember. I had also previously read Tom Sawyer, and have gone back to both later.   I love Barbara Kingsolver, too. Her stuff is rich--like cooking with full cream and butter, instead of skim milk and veggie oil.                            Tw