The Village That Slept is a children's book, originally written in French, although I read it in English.
It was published in 1965, and was set sometime between the end of World War 2 and then, although no real date is given.
In the story three children are the survivors of a plane crash somewhere high in the Alps. The older two Franz and Lydia, can not remember much more than their names. The youngest one, a baby who looks Chinese, they name Tao after the syllables he is babbling. The area where they crashed has been abandoned -- there are two small villages, but no people. Some animals are still around though, and there is a climbers hut with supplies, so with some hard work and trust in each other, they set about creating a home for themselves. Eventually there is another plane crash, but this time the pilot (who they find and rescue) has sent out a radio message and all of them are discovered by the authorities.
As a kid I loved stories where kids did things independent of the grown ups. I also liked survival stories, so this one was (and is) a favorite. I was drawn in originally by the illustrations by Margery Gill, who had illustrated other books I liked, but I kept rereading because I liked the way that Franz and Lydia went about solving each problem as it arose.
(Hm.. Come to think of it, this is probably why I also liked The Martian.)
The book elides over some of the time so missing scenes would be nice, or a what happens next type story. A problem solving event would also be good. This is definitely one of the times I'd like something canonish.
The Village That Slept - Monique P. De Ladebat
It was published in 1965, and was set sometime between the end of World War 2 and then, although no real date is given.
In the story three children are the survivors of a plane crash somewhere high in the Alps. The older two Franz and Lydia, can not remember much more than their names. The youngest one, a baby who looks Chinese, they name Tao after the syllables he is babbling. The area where they crashed has been abandoned -- there are two small villages, but no people. Some animals are still around though, and there is a climbers hut with supplies, so with some hard work and trust in each other, they set about creating a home for themselves. Eventually there is another plane crash, but this time the pilot (who they find and rescue) has sent out a radio message and all of them are discovered by the authorities.
The book is about 200 pages long. It is available on the internet archive. https://archive.org/details/villagethatslept00peyr/page/n1/mode/2up or you might find it via interlibrary loan.
As a kid I loved stories where kids did things independent of the grown ups. I also liked survival stories, so this one was (and is) a favorite. I was drawn in originally by the illustrations by Margery Gill, who had illustrated other books I liked, but I kept rereading because I liked the way that Franz and Lydia went about solving each problem as it arose.
(Hm.. Come to think of it, this is probably why I also liked The Martian.)
The book elides over some of the time so missing scenes would be nice, or a what happens next type story. A problem solving event would also be good. This is definitely one of the times I'd like something canonish.