An Italian Adventure by Gaia B. Amman
(Italian Saga, #1)
Publication date: November 1st 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
(Italian Saga, #1)
Publication date: November 1st 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Synopsis:
A humorous coming of age tale of friendship, sisterhood, and family drama set against the gorgeous backdrop of northern Italy.
Recommended for fans of Jandy Nelson, John Green, Neil Gaiman and Sherman Alexie
Italy, the late 80s. Leda is a bookish tomboy whose life is turned upside down by shady Nico, who just moved north from Sicily. Their unlikely friendship will evolve through a whirlwind of adventures leaving both kids transformed. Ultimately, Leda will discover that adults aren’t always right, marking the end of childhood and the beginning of everything else.
Recommended for ages 13 and above. Some swearwords, mostly in Italian.
The book is the first in a series following the same characters throughout their life.
Recommended for fans of Jandy Nelson, John Green, Neil Gaiman and Sherman Alexie
Italy, the late 80s. Leda is a bookish tomboy whose life is turned upside down by shady Nico, who just moved north from Sicily. Their unlikely friendship will evolve through a whirlwind of adventures leaving both kids transformed. Ultimately, Leda will discover that adults aren’t always right, marking the end of childhood and the beginning of everything else.
Recommended for ages 13 and above. Some swearwords, mostly in Italian.
The book is the first in a series following the same characters throughout their life.
Purchase:
It’s very hard for me to choose a favorite scene form “An Italian Adventure, It will All Make Less Sense When you Grow Up” since for every scene in the book there are probably nine I cut out. I chose the one below because I find it cute and funny, a reminder of what it is like to fall for a first crush, which by the way is a lot more awkward when you are a bookworm and a tomboy. Here, main character Leda (Lee) is at the seaside, during summer, beside a pool in the gorgeous Island of Sardinia, west of Italy.
[…]
A few hours later
Ezio, the most handsome guy I had ever seen, asked me, “And what's your name?”
He looked just like
Chris from the movie Stand by me, for whom I had developed a remarkable
crush. I loved bad boys, maybe they reminded me a bit of Nico.
I stared at
gorgeous Ezio, wondering about protocol. Should I give him the stink eye and
ignore him, kick him in the shins just in case, or simply answer his question?
The only guy older
than me that had ever paid me any mind was the bully who had tried to drown me.
Repeatedly. The longer it took me to utter anything, the more the words got
stuck in my throat. Instead of leaving me be, shrugging, as I expected, Ezio
leaned his head sideways and kept looking at me with a smile in his eyes,
waiting for me to catch up.
I ended up
answering, “Leda, but everyone calls me Lee,” cursing myself for not kicking
him in the shins.
To make up for it,
I tried to stare back at him to intimidate him and found myself looking at the
ground instead, since I was blushing like the hopeless dork I truly was. While
I waited for the inevitable banter or, better, for the earth to swallow me whole,
he added without batting an eyelid, “Well, Leda, you have the most amazing eyes
that I’ve ever seen.”
Unfortunately, the
earth did not swallow me. Worse yet, I felt myself blushing more, in spite of
my amazing eyes being glued to the tiles around the pool.
I just managed to
reply, “I said that everyone calls me Lee.”
“I heard you the
first time, Leda.”
Just then, his
friend Franco called Ezio back for his turn at Ping-Pong. I hoped no one
noticed my embarrassment.
Pathetically, Ezio
was fourteen. Only a few hours before I had laughed at Viola for her decrepit
light technician and now…Since the entire mini club was staring at the two
Ping-Pong players, I took the liberty to glue my amazing eyes on Ezio.
He was wearing blue swim trunks and was shirtless.
Shirtless.
Shirtless.
Like everyone else
since we were at the pool, I had to remind myself. Yet only his bare
chest seemed to bother me.
He didn’t look
like Flavio, Peo or Nico who were still kids, like me (again, mental note to
self). His shoulders were wide over his narrow waist, his muscles more defined
than those of a ten-year-old.
“Lee, I think
you’ve been in the sun a bit too much.”
The mocking remark
woke me up from my trance. I peeled my gaze from Ezio to glance at the staff
girl who ran the mini-club. She winked at me and burst out laughing. A few kids turned to look at us quizzically,
then back at the game.
The staff girl
whispered in my ear, “Actually, you look really smitten…by the sun, I mean.”
I growled, “Oh,
shush!” but she looked even more amused.
I realized that I
was losing my intimidating ability which, sadly, was the only modality of
interaction I knew. I only felt safe if I hid my weaknesses by making people
around me feel more scared than I was. Without my tough-cookie reputation and
without the rest of the quartet at my side, I was a fish out of water, a
ten-year-old, short, skinny, and rather shy…girl.
What a shame.
Ezio won the
match, which meant that I had to face him in the final. I was pretty good at
Ping-Pong. I had grown up playing against Dad who had defeated me with no mercy
since the dawn of my childhood, hoping to raise a champion. I was no champion,
but usually destroyed my peers.
Nonetheless, Ezio
was much older and had the physical advantage of height and strength. Just
thinking of the word physical associated with Ezio made me blush. Merda.
I reached for my racket. Not to mention that, if I caught even so much as a
glimpse of him, I was at risk of missing the ball altogether. This was going to
be awful.
AUTHOR BIO:
Gaia B Amman was born and raised in Italy. She moved to the United States in her twenties to pursue her PhD in molecular biology. She’s currently a Professor of biology at D’Youville College in Buffalo, New York, where she was voted “the professor of the month” by her students. Her research and commentaries have been published in prestigious peer-reviewed international journals including Nature.
A bookworm from birth, she wrote throughout her childhood and won two short story competitions in Italy in her teens. Gaia is an avid traveler and many of her adventures are an inspiration for her fiction. Mostly she is passionate about people and the struggles they face to embrace life. Her highest hope is to reach and help as many as she can through her writing as well as her teaching. She authored the Italian Saga, an irreverent series of humorous and insightful young adult novels taking place against the gorgeous backdrop of Northern Italy. The books, light-hearted and funny at first sight, deal with issues like sexuality, divorce, friendship, abuse, first love and self discovery.
Among her favorite authors are J.K. Rowling, Jandy Nelson, Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Antoine de Saint Exupèry.
A bookworm from birth, she wrote throughout her childhood and won two short story competitions in Italy in her teens. Gaia is an avid traveler and many of her adventures are an inspiration for her fiction. Mostly she is passionate about people and the struggles they face to embrace life. Her highest hope is to reach and help as many as she can through her writing as well as her teaching. She authored the Italian Saga, an irreverent series of humorous and insightful young adult novels taking place against the gorgeous backdrop of Northern Italy. The books, light-hearted and funny at first sight, deal with issues like sexuality, divorce, friendship, abuse, first love and self discovery.
Among her favorite authors are J.K. Rowling, Jandy Nelson, Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Antoine de Saint Exupèry.
Author links:
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