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Loading... Peppe the Lamplighterby Elisa Bartone
 sondrabrush1969 | Oct 24, 2012 |  SUMMARY: This is a story of a boy who takes the job as a lamplighter in order to help his family survive. However, his father is not proud of Peppe for doing this job, and puts him down continuously because of it. In the end Peppe's father realizes exactly how important his job actually is. PERSONNAL REACTION: This book was very sad, and I felt is sent an important message. However, I would be careful about presenting this book to my students depending upon thier maturity level, and of course, their age. CLASSROOM EXTENSION: This would be a great book to incorporate when talking about different types of jobs, and how every person is important, and we need all types of people to do all types of jobs. This book would also be great to begin a conversation about how other children work and live in other countries outside of America. oklahomaannie | Oct 24, 2012 | Summary: Peppe is from Italy, their family moved to America for a better life and future. His mother passes away, so Peppe felt the need to find a job. He finds a job as a lamplighter. His father is not pleased with the job. One night Peppe decided not to light the city and people begin to ask Peppe's father where is the lamplighter. Peppe's father then tells his son that its a good job and that he should go back to light the lamps since some people are scared of the dark. As Peppe lights the lamps he also says asks a wish and let a girl light the lamp. Personal Response: I really enjoyed the story since my parents are immigrants. I also liked how Peppe would wish for his father to be proud of him. Classroom Extension: 1. Lesson plan on immigration. 2. Have students share where their families came from and maybe even also do a lesson plan on the importance of electricity. 3. Teach kids the importance of being confident. (  ) StephanieSerra | Oct 13, 2012 | Summary: This is a story about a family from Italy that is struggling to get by. The boy, Pepe, finds a job lighting the street lights but struggles with disappointing his father. He doesn't light the lamps one night and then finally his father convinces him that it really is a good job because the dark scares some people. When he goes back out the next night to light the lamps, Assunta tells Pepe that he has the best job in America and that she wants to be like him. Personal Reaction: This is a good story about the struggles that immigrants had to go through when they came to America. It gives good insight. Classroom Extension: This could be used in a history lesson about immigrants. You can also teach about confidence and perseverance. tylerblount | Oct 10, 2012 | Summary: This story is set a long time ago before electricity was invented. Peppe is a young boy who has seven sisters that he has to help take care of because his mother is dead and his father is sick. He asks all around and finally finds a job as a lamplighter and has to light every lamp on the street by hand when it gets dark at night. His father is ashamed of his son for doing this job until one night the youngest sister does not come home because Peppe did not light the lamps. Now his father wants him to light the lamps and tells him it is a good job, so Peppe does and brings his little sister home to make his dad proud. Classroom Extension Ideas: 1. After reading this story as a class, it would be neat to have a lesson on electricity, how it works and who invented it. 2. The students could write about a time when they did not have electricity, maybe during a storm, and tell what they did or used to improvise. kaylahatch | Oct 30, 2011 |
 Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1993) At a time when streetlamps are lit by hand, Peppe lives in New York's Little Italy. With Mamma dead, Papa ill, and seven sisters at home, times are hard; the tradespeople Peppe asks for work all turn him down. So when the lamplighter asks the boy to take his place while he goes back to Italy, Peppe is overjoyed; at first, each lamp he lights is a wish for his family--that Assunta "learns good English in school," that Giulia marries well, that Nicolina finds work. But Papa is bitterly disappointed--"Did I come to America for my son to light the streetlamps?" Discouraged, Peppe leaves the lamps dark one night, only to learn that little Assunta has depended on the light to come home. Thus Peppe regains his self-respect--and Papa's approval. The economically told narrative gracefully incorporates many details of the setting, which is also splendidly realized in Lewin's luminous paintings. Peppe's lamps shine bravely in a tenement world where both night and interiors are dark, while clothing and street scenes arc also somber. Lewin's characterizations are subtle and telling; in his splendid compositions, the dramatic interplay of light and dark intensify the story's message of hope. A beautiful, moving book. 1993 Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May 1993 (Vol. 46, No. 9)) Peppe is a young boy living "a long time ago when there was no electricity and the streetlamps in Little Italy had to be lit by hand." Due to his father's illness Peppe must work to help support his motherless family, and he eventually finds a job lighting those streetlamps. Peppe is dismayed when his father denigrates the job as menial street work, but eventually his youngest sister causes him and his father to regain pride in his work. The story avoids sentimentality in favor of simplicity and a touch of lyricism (when Peppe lights the lamps he imagines each one to be a "small flame of promise for the future"); Peppe's quiet quest for familial respect and pleasure in his work is touching and rhythmically written. The early-American city scenes are dark but have a nice period luminescence in the myriad street and table lamps, and the earth-toned watercolors lend the bustling streets and interiors of Little Italy an air both somber and lively. This is a pleasing kid-centered slice of history that possesses a warmth and dignity to which contemporary youngsters will relate. R--Recommended. (c) Copyright 1993, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1993, Lothrop, 32p, $13.93 and $14.00. Ages 5-8 yrs.
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Wikipedia in English
6
I really liked this book, it was sad that his father said those hateful things to him but the ending was great. It is a feel good story that keeps you hanging on for a happy ending.
With older kids you could take a trip back in time when electricity had not been thought of. You could talk about some of the jobs that were available back then. (