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Summary
Summary
Eleven-year-old Margo Bandini has never been afraid of anything. Her life in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, with Mama and Papa and her little brother, Charlie, has always felt secure. But it's 1933, and the Great Depression is changing things for families all across America. One day the impossible happens: Papa cannot make the payments for their house, and the Sheriff Sale sign goes up on their door. They have two weeks to pay the bank, or leave their home forever. Now Margo is afraid--but she's also determined to find a way to help Papa save their home.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
First-time author De Young uses her own family history to create a Depression-era story about first-generation Italian-Americans living in Johnstown, Pa., in 1933. Eleven-year-old Margo Bandini, her parents and young brother, Charlie, face losing their house if they do not find a way to pay back the bank loan used to cover hospital expenses for Charlie's emergency leg operation. In a letter, Margo appeals to Eleanor "Everywhere" Roosevelt, the person she admires most, for help. Her teacher (who moonlights as a reporter and knows the First Lady) provides a swift, personal delivery of the letter and soon Margo receives a reply that restores her faith in miracles and resolves the crisis. Despite its rather contrived conclusion, this historic novel is successful in conveying the climate of the times: the "domino" effect of the steel mill cutting back workers' hours translating into failing businesses and the necessity of neighbors relying on one another for support during hard times. Margo emerges as an admirable heroine whose actions reveal a generous heart and determination to help her family hold on to their home. Ages 8-12. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
When the bank forecloses on her family's home during the Depression, eleven-year-old Margo writes to Eleanor Roosevelt for help. The girl's work and faith pay off when her family receives an emergency loan. Historical details are smoothly woven into the text, and Margo is a strong heroine. The (extremely) happy ending is substantiated by a note explaining that Mrs. Roosevelt saved the author's father's home through a New Deal relief program. From HORN BOOK Fall 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 3^-5. Based on a true family story, this novel of an Italian immigrant community in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, during the Depression is narrated by 11-year-old Margo Bandini, who writes to the president's wife for help when Papa cannot pay the mortgage and the bank threatens to foreclose on the Bandini home. Margo includes in her letter her father's victory medal for his service in the First World War. Occasional scenes verge on the sentimental, with misty eyes, lumpy throats, and escaping sobs all around; and there is a quite unnecessary plot contrivance (Margo's classroom teacher turns out to be a famous newspaper columnist, who personally delivers the letter to her friend Mrs. Roosevelt). However, the afterword points out that the heart of the story is true: De Young's grandfather did write to Mrs. Roosevelt and send his war medal, and she did help him keep his home. This first novel, winner of the Marguerite de Angeli Prize, creates a strong sense of place and time, when the desperate stood in line at the soup kitchen, and the Depression was felt right up to the front porch of a loving family home. --Hazel Rochman
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-This Depression-era story is rich with the details of life in the small mining and steel town of Johnstown, PA. When her family is threatened with losing their home and business because they are unable to pay their bank loans, 11-year-old Margo Bandini writes a desperate letter to Mrs. Roosevelt as part of a class assignment. Margo has read about the First Lady's interest in children and her visits to people all over the world and hopes that the woman might find a way to save her home. With a little help from Margo's teacher, who is also a newspaper writer and a friend of Mrs. Roosevelt's, the letter gets the attention of the First Lady, who then arranges with the bank to refinance the family's loan as a part of the New Deal relief program. The outcome of this plot may seem outlandish, yet this novel is based on events that actually occurred in the author's family. The strong and believable female characters, the smooth integration of historical facts into the story, and the compelling first-person narrative make this a good choice for social-studies reading, historical-fiction assignments, or book discussion.-Joan Zaleski, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
De Young weaves this heartwarming Depression-era episode around a true family story. When Margo Bandini, 11, learns that her family is about to lose their home, she takes advantage of a class assignment to write a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, enclosing her father's medal from WWI and asking for help. Writing in a smooth, unornamented style, the author fleshes out the tale with an extended hunt for Margo's missing little brother Charlie that teaches her not to prejudge the hoboes who pass through town; provides a light dusting of background information about the Great Depression's causes and effects through Margo's reading of newspapers; slips in a surprise'Margo's fifth-grade teacher, Miss Dobson, and her favorite journalist, E.D. Kirby, turn out to be one and the same; and ends on a happy note'the Bandinis get to keep their house after the local bank manager gets a call from the White House. The plot turns in plausible directions, and readers will find amiable characters here, as well as a clear picture of the time's anxieties and hardships. (Fiction. 8-11)
