Peppe the Lamplighter
This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share a commission.
Peppe the Lamplighter Peppe becomes a lamplighter to help support his immigrant family in turn-of-the-century New York City.
Peppe the Lamplighter
This is the story of Peppe, who becomes a lamplighter to help support his immigrant family in turn-of-the-century New York City, despite his papa’s disapproval. Peppe’s family is very poor, and though he is just a boy he needs to find work.
Being a lamplighter is not the job his father had dreamed of for Peppe, but when Peppe’s job helps save his little sister, he earns the respect of his entire family.
In the tradition of Lois Lowry and Paul Fleischman, Elisa Bartone’s Caldecott Honor-winning book gives children a glimpse into American history and the immigrant experience.
A Few Reviews
“A beautiful, moving book.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Deftly vivifies a slice of American History.”–Publishers Weekly
“This is a moving historical fiction story of an immigrant boy who–after being turned away again and again–finds a job lighting the gas street lamps in the big city in the latter 1800s to early 1900s. He is Italian and lives in “little Italy,” perhaps the poorest Italian immigrant slum (ghetto) in New York City. The family needs money and Peppe knows it. But his ill and out-of-work father is ashamed that Peppe has taken such a low-paying, and low-status job. This is such an embarrassment to his father that he believes his only son will amount to nothing, and he tells Peppe so. But as the story unfolds, his father comes to realize how important lamplighting is, especially when one of his beloved daughters goes missing on the darkened streets. This is an emotional story of the relationships and love within an immigrant family, and of Peppe who wants to please his father, but doesn’t until…..” —Amazon Reviewer James Charnock
