Book Descriptions
for I Will Come Back for You by Marisabina Russo
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
A little girl learns about the bracelet her Nonna never takes off: Each charm represents a piece of the story telling what happened to Nonna’s family, Jews living in Italy, during World War II. They left Rome to stay with friends in the county and be near Nonna’s father, who’d been detained nearby by the Nazis. When word came that Jews were going to be sent away, the family escaped with the help of friends. Nonna, her mother, and brother spent most of the war in hiding on a farm. Nonna’s father joined the resistance and was later killed. Nonna conveys the events to her granddaughter with honest sensitivity in Marisabina Russo’s tender story based on the experiences of her mother, who became a partisan like her husband—the father in the story. Russo provides more details about her mother’s real story in an afterword that, along with the family photographs gracing the endpapers, heightens the poignancy of this picture book. (Ages 5–9)
CCBC Choices 2012. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2012. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
What was it like to grow up Jewish in Italy during World War II? Sit with a little girl as her grandmother tells the story of her childhood in Rome, of being separated from her father, and of going into hiding in the mountains. Based on the experiences of the author's own family, this deeply moving book set during the Holocaust deals with a difficult subject in a way that is accessible and appropriate for young readers. I Will Come Back for You is an incredible story of bravery and kindness in the face of danger.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.