An imaginative, engrossing story of triumph during times of war.
A 9-year-old Italian boy and his mother are caught in the cross hairs of World War II in this middle-grade historical novel.
It’s the spring of 1943, and life hasn’t been easy for Peppino in recent years. His father left for America to start a new life, the Nazis moved into his family’s small Italian town, and Mussolini has aligned Italy with Germany. The German soldiers are brutish, willing to shoot anyone who dissents, and Peppino learns to keep his head down and stay out of trouble. Things get worse before they get better: the Fascist mayor relegates Peppino and his mother to living in the basement because he and his wife want the rest of their house for themselves; Peppino and his mother help hide Rachel, a Jewish refugee from Rome; and food becomes scarcer. One day in 1945, the German soldiers begin leaving town, and Peppino and his townsfolk are overjoyed. As the tide of the war turns, Peppino meets a rugby-playing, redheaded British soldier and a group of American GIs. These new friends widen his worldview and make him more determined to meet his father in America. As he and his mother contemplate rebuilding their lives in Italy, Peppino gets word from his father that they should join him in Chicago. Can Peppino convince his mother to travel across the ocean? Rubino (Emmet’s Storm, 2015) claims that most of the stories and asides here actually happened and were culled from tales passed down from her Southern Italian husband and his brethren. She’s a gifted storyteller, balancing the horrors of WWII (including mentions of mustard gas, concentration camps, and the like) with the realities of townsfolk who are just trying to see things through to the other side of the fighting. Illustrations by Cimbalo (East Utica, 2015. etc.) pepper the work, but they’re not necessary to the story; in fact, their sketchlike nature is a bit distracting. The dialogue, however, is wonderful, and a glossary at the back will help non-Italian speakers with the characters’ Italian/English hybrid language. The main character’s evolution from boy to young man is as engaging as the evolution of world events surrounding him. Overall, though, one need not be a history buff to enjoy Peppino and his tale.
An imaginative, engrossing story of triumph during times of war.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-942247-03-6
Page Count: 190
Publisher: Catree.com
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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