Tricia Springstubb (What Happened on Fox Street; Moonpenny Island) has written a philosophical, often poetic, remarkably spot-on novel about universalities--growing up, family, friendship, honesty, faith, death, time and race--set in the context of the big, important preteen years of a present-day Italian American "skyscraper of a girl," 12-year-old Nella Sabatini.
Until a few years ago, life in Nella's Little Italy neighborhood strolled along steadily: the "Sacred Scent of Doughnuts" from Franny's shop; the familiar cemetery where her dad works; her Catholic school; the clamor of "the barbarians," aka her endless supply of younger brothers; her best-friendship with "secret sister" Angela DeMarco; and her quiet worship of Angela's older brother Anthony. It's third grade when Nella starts questioning everything, especially about right and wrong, good and evil. Can those who do bad things still be good people? Nella's questions about Angela's scary, angry, PTSD-stricken dad take on broader relevance as the girls grow, and grow apart. When Anthony is arrested for killing a black man, Nella's questions about judgment and redemption come even faster and more furious.
Springstubb alternates chapters identified as "now," "then" and a few variations on "What Jeptha A. Stone Would Say if He Could," the latter being the silent orations of a long-dead man in the neighborhood cemetery who watches over all in a blustery, self-righteous and ultimately lovable manner. Nella is authentic as a child who is emerging from her own age of innocence into a world of almost unbearable complexity and ambiguity. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor