The Master's Notebook: A Fencer's Journey

For French teen Jean Dupuis, growing up is like fighting a duel every day. Especially because he's a fencer. It's a time of testing. Jean and his fencing buddies (Pitt, Tox, and Zubb) love to fight with swords and to make terrible puns. Now they are facing their biggest competition of the year - the Cadet Nationals of France. Jean's eccentric fencing master has just given him the most humiliating lesson of his life, then told Jean that he will not be at the Nationals to coach his team. Jean has even more on his mind. He's worried about becoming another conformist adult. He can't stand his dysfunctional family. He's bewildered by the beautiful Zo , who teases him unmercifully, and he still has to fence the tournament. Worst of all, Jean has stolen his fencing master's precious notebook and feels terrible about it. But the notebook proves to be his strongest ally, because every time he opens it, he finds advice that deals with the problems he is facing at that moment. But he gets off to a terrible start. Will the notebook be enough to get him past the pools? Can it help him solve the riddle of Zo ? And where is Master Estavel? This is a story of the fast-tracked education of a young man's duel with himself, his parents, the adult world, and his fencing adversaries. Jean's journey is the one that faces every aspiring champion.