As she turns twelve during the summer of 1953, Penny gains new insights into herself and her family while also learning a secret about her father's death.

In this stunning debut novel, a young woman tells the story behind two elderly sisters' estrangement, unraveling family secrets stretching back a century and across the Atlantic to early 20th century ItalyFor Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella's childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents--moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella's...

This Italian-American Newbery Medalist presents a humorous account of his childhood and youth in Norristown, Pennsylvania.

It's 1949 in south Philadelphia. Diligent, hard-working, and proud, the Palazzinis have built a solid life for themselves and their three sons. Now that World War II is over, their sons, each one a decorated veteran, have returned home to the family cab company, to rejoin their world as it was before they left. But their future and fortunes are forever changed by a telegram, and the nephew who delivers it.

After honoring tradition by moving to America and birthing seven children to the husband she has never really known, Italian Josephine Rimaldi seeks her youngest child, given up for adoption after her secret affair, while her six remaining children face the trials and tribulations of World War I, the 1950s, and the vices that fueled 1970s America.

The story of four generations of an Italian American family, beginning with an immigrant who came through Ellis Island with big dreams, a small shovel, and his parents' good advice: "Work hard, but remember to enjoy life, and never forget your family."

When she drops out of school and struggles to start a career on Broadway in the fall of 1950, seventeen-year-old Kit Corrigan accepts help from an old family friend, a lawyer said to have ties with the mob, who then asks her to do some favors for him.