Overview
A stirring middle grade novel about survival, identity, and the loving kindness of others. Set in 1943 Rome, a twelve-year-old Jewish boy, his selfless mother, and group of strangers outsmart the Germans through wit and grace in this story reliving the last Nazi roundup of Rome.
It's October 16, 1943, in the Rome ghetto Emanuele hides on a tram and begins a journey that will take him, stop after stop, to the end of the line, looking for his mother, who's been taken by the Nazis. He tells the conductor that he is Jewish and asks to be protected because the Germans are looking for him. The tram driver and then others after him will help Emanuele stay alive and safe for three days until he can find his father.
The author, Tea Ranno, tells the moving story of one of the last surviving witnesses of the Nazi roundup of Rome, Emanuele Di Porto.
Excerpts from the introduction:
My name is Emanuele Di Porto and I am ninety-one years old. On the morning of October 16th, 1943, when the Germans came to the ghetto to carry out a raid, my mother was taken and put on a truck. I ran into the street to save her, but instead she saved me. I have told my story for more than seventy years, but it has only recently gained recognition; many people now recognize me on the street and call me "the tram’s kid". But I have never been a kid, because at that time there was utter poverty, and everyone had to hurry to grow up and help their family. I have never been a kid, but I will never be old, because in my heart, time has stopped. My story is captured in this book, with some parts being completely true, and others embellished by Tea to bring the past to life.
