Browsing the shelves of our Lower School library inevitably leads to finding some gems. From the slightly creepy Baby Island, to the magical Gone Away Lake, I usually end up discovering some children's books that may not have otherwise ended on my radar. This time my find was The Bells of Bleecker Street. Since my school is located on the corner of Bleecker Street, I was automatically drawn to this title, and I was happily reading about Joey and his antics over the weekend.
Joey Enrico is a neighbourhood boy. He and his pals hang around the Greenwich Village area. Their main social activities center around The Church of Our Lady of Pompeii, the pushcarts along Bleecker and Sheridan Square. Joey's dad is off fighting in World War II, and Joey is missing him fiercely. He tries to help out in his father's framing shop and stay out of trouble.
But trouble seems to find Joey. Especially when he is hanging out with his friend Pete "the Squeak" Ryan. One day, Joey and Pete decide to go into Our Lady of Pompeii to see the new statue of Saint John. After seeing the new statue, the boys go to see the old one, the one that Joey was baptized under. When the toe of the old Saint John breaks off under Joey's fingertips, Joey panics. The ever mischievous Pete, however, convinces Joey that Saint John's toe should be treated like a rabbit's foot. Joey should keep it for good luck. After all, couldn't Joey use some luck?
So, Joey puts the toe in his pocket and hits the streets. Does his luck change? Maybe a little bit, but Joey is wracked with guilt about his theft.
Valenti Angelo's The Bells of Bleecker Street is a wonderful example of children's literature from the 1940s. Well written chapters are almost stories within the story. Joey and his pals are all squeaky clean family boys who help out around the neighbourhood and generally do the right thing. Joey's Italian family's heritage is examined through everyday activities, and it's interesting to note the differences put forth concerning Pete's Irish family. This is sweet storytelling that would make a great read aloud.
Joseph Calderaro is turning 14. What can possibly happen on his birthday to bum him out? Well...starting the day off with burnt PopTarts is a sign. Then with 10 minutes left in social studies, Mrs. Peroutka drops the bomb in the form of the assignment "Tracing Your Past: A Heritage Essay". The essay is to be 1500 words long, and here it is May already. But the word count is not Joseph's biggest problem. He's adopted. What the heck does he know about his heritage.
Joseph thinks that maybe his mother's famous birthday dinner will save his spirits a bit. The eggplant Parmesan does go down nicely, but once the presents come out there is more trouble. Joseph's dad gives him a corno. You know...the Italian gold horn that keeps away the malocchio? Aside from the fact that no self respecting 14-year-old is going to walk around with that kind of gold chain, Joseph just doesn't know how to break it to his parents that he's not Italian...he's Korean. At least that is how he feels at that moment.
Joseph goes on to explore his past without the knowledge of his parents. Along the way, a new Korean family moves into town, and Joseph's parents nudge him over to try and help him out with his identity. But when Joseph is with Yongsu and his family, he doesn't even feel Korean.
So where does this leave Joseph? If he's not really Korean, and not really Italian, what is he?
Rose Kent does a bang-up job of finding the voice of a 14-year-old boy. Joseph's struggles with his parents and his identity are equal measure growing pains and adoption pains. Books about adopted kids are always tricky, because the fact of the matter is, every adoptee feels a bit different. In my own family, my father and his brother and sister were all adopted, and they all had very different reactions to finding out and toward the idea of a search for birth parents. Kent lets readers in on not only the world of adoption, but quite a bit of information about Italian and Korean culture. Joseph is such a great character and is so easy to relate to that readers will cheer for him as he finds his way.
Okay, all authors know about the Amazon addiction - checking out how your book is selling relative to other books, and sometimes basing your mood, hour by hour, upon how high or low your number is. I have had the Amazon addiction so bad that at one point I knew exactly when it was updated every hour. It was something like eight minutes after.
You can also have a B&N addiction, although that one never took with me. It was the equivalent to bar smoking. I could join a friend at a bar in college and bum a cigarette (in a rather transparent attempt to be cool) but I never bought my own or smoked when I was alone.
And then there's my Ingram addiction. That one is engraved and bad. And now I'm jonesing for a fix.
Ingram is one of the largest book distributors in the national. And you see, Ingram has - or had - two numbers you could call. One was toll free: 1-800-937-0995. And an automated voice says how many of your book are in stock, once you enter the ISBN. If you called it repeatedly, you would generally be able to figure out how much stock was moving through Ingram.
But the other number, 615-213-6803, even thought it wasn't toll free, would give you so much more. How many were on order, on back order, how many had sold that week, the previous week, that year, and the previous year. If you had a really bad addiction, you could enter the ISBNs of rival's books, friend's books, anybody's book!
Let's just say this is not a good thing to figure out if you have unlimited long distance calling.
If you are an author, this kind of information is like gold. Otherwise you must rely on your royalty statements, which only come twice a year and cover a period that is so long ago you no longer remember it. That's why I loved Ingrams. Immediate feedback, as often as you wanted it.
But as of Monday, the number doesn't work. It says "The number is not assigned within our company."
I'm trying to follow up with Ingram, even though I am but a lowly author and not anyone who pays their bills. Maybe there is a temporary glitch. But what if they have done away with it altogether? Can you suggest an alternate addiction?
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Browsing the shelves of our Lower School library inevitably leads to finding some gems. From the slightly creepy Baby Island, to the magical Gone Away Lake, I usually end up discovering some children's books that may not have otherwise ended on my radar. This time my find was The Bells of Bleecker Street. Since my school is located on the corner of Bleecker Street, I was automatically drawn to this title, and I was happily reading about Joey and his antics over the weekend.
