Peppe the Lamplighter

Peppe the Lamplighter

Title: Peppe the Lamplighter

Genre: Historical Fiction

Author: Elisa Bartone

Illustrator: Ted Lewin

Awards: 1994 Caldecott medal

Age group: 6 years old and up

This story is a heartwarming tale of a boy who tries to help his immigrant family in New York City by getting work. This book is a great and heartwarming read, with a great ending.

Summary:

The story begins with Peppe who is looking for a job to help out his family of sisters and his father who is sick. After trying everything he could think of, he finally gets a job lighting all the street lamps every night. When he tells his family all his sisters were exited but his father was not. Every time he lights a candle in a street lamp he makes a sort of wish for a better life in certain things for his family and friends. But when he comes home his father continues to be mean to him about lighting the lamps because he does not believe that his son lighting street lamps was worth coming to America. Then Peppe starts to feel ashamed of his job and in turn did not do it one night and then one of his sisters went missing. In a worried state, all of a sudden his papa wanted him to light the lights to help find his sister; he said it was important now that he lights the lamps. So he went and lite each candle till he lit the last one and that is where he found his sister. When he found her his sister she asked “why did you not light the lamps tonight” and he said he was sorry. When Peppe got back home, his father realizing what an important job Peppe had said “light the lamps Peppe, it is a good job make me proud”. So he continued to light the lamps each night and each to him was a like a promise for tomorrow.

I believe I would use this book in my classroom because this story teaches the idea that every job counts no matter how small. This is a great lesson I believe children need to know that every person’s effort counts .Another good theme from this book is if you love something don’t let anyone talk you out of loving it or changing your mind about it, do what you love.

I believe the appropriate grade level for this book would be 1st-5th grade because it does have quite a few words to a page and has some more mature vocabulary. But I believe this is a great book for educating about history and immigrant culture and it is also told through a child’s view so it is more relatable for kids.

I might use this book as a way to show a little bit of an immigrants experience and how their view points on life might be different than others. I would also have the students compare how living was like back then in the story to what living is now.

HAVE FUN READING!💙-Lacy