AN ITALIAN ADVENTURE

In Amman’s YA novel, a young, spirited girl in Italy struggles to navigate her early adolescence.

It’s 1987, and 8-year-old Leda “Lee” Balni doesn’t enjoy stereotypically girly things. She rejects pretty clothes and dolls and prefers riding bikes and climbing trees in her small Italian town of Arese; she also enjoys being part of a trio of “sworn brothers” with pals Flavio and Peo. Lee faces continual bullying, though. At home, her teenage sister Viola taunts, slaps, and chokes her, and a thuggish classmate, Nico Salisi, mocks her, calling her “Four Eyes” due to her glasses; yet, confusingly, Lee sometimes feels a bond with him. Many changes occur during her three-part story, spanning the years 1987 to 1989: Lee gets her first crush on an older boy; Nico tries to drown Lee in the swimming pool, before the trio of friends becomes a quartet; Lee worries about the state of her soul after looking at a porn magazine; and her parents divorce. But Lee knows the biggest, and worst, change of all will be starting middle school and the probable dissolution of her tightknit friend group. Although Amman’s novel convincingly resembles a child’s diary, it astutely examines such themes as religion, sexuality, family relations, and gender, and the youthful narrator sees multiple sides of those around her—except maybe Flavio, who, at one point, discusses “tarzanelli: dingleberries of poo that hang from your butt…hanging like Tarzan from a vine.” Nico’s surprising feeling about a beautiful spring day is “Anguish”; vicious Viola once experienced nightmares about Pinocchio; and Lee’s mom and dad appear less confident after separating. Italy itself plays a formative role in the story, often reflecting the highs and lows of the narrator herself. In the town of Flavon, with pal Flavio, Lee discovers “Neverland,” “a sunny, grassy glade enchanted with countless wildflowers,” but Arese in 1989 is “necrotic,” as Lee feels “unmoored yet without a destination” while contemplating elementary school’s end.

A lighthearted but affecting narrative of childhood’s many changes.