Little Italy

Little Italy is the story of the Trella family. In 1920 Vito’s land is worn out, and he can’t sell his oranges. Sadly, he leaves his Italian homeland and sails to New York to get work and save enough money to bring his wife, Rosetta, and their three children to America. For more than two years he works as a stonecutter, building the new skyscrapers of New York. It is dangerous work. Finally, he saves enough money for four tickets. Rosetta and their children join him. They make their new life on Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy. Rosetta finds the city dirty and depressing at first, but she learns to love her Italian neighbors and her church. They have four more children. Then Vito falls, is injured, and must take a job making paper flowers; the whole family helps. All seven children finish high school and get good jobs. Vito and Rosetta stay in Little Italy. The novel ends as their youngest child, Dominick, graduates from high school with honors.

Hopes and Dreams is a series of dramatic historical readers for beginners. The hopes and dreams of the characters in these stories are a reflection of the hopes and dreams of virtually every group of people who have ventured from their homes to a new place for a new life in America. Each story and its characters reflect a part of the history of the United States. Yet, at the same time, each story is different; the characters face challenges, defeats and victories in the fields and factories of Southern California, the gold fields of the West, the construction of the railroad in Utah, Chinatown in San Francisco, the Deep South and Southside Chicago, and New York’s Little Italy.

Available free online, the teacher’s supplement includes the following:

• Brief plot summaries
• Discussion Questions for each chapter
• Historical photographs
• Detailed plot summaries
• Historical background
• Comprehension check: “What Did You Read” Form
• Book report form
• Word play activity
• Final Review Cloze activity