Peppe the Lamplighter

Title: Peppe the Lamplighter

Author: Elisa Bartone

Illustrator: Ted Lewin

Medium: The book does not state it, but it looks like watercolor.
Genre: Historical Fiction

Other Relevant Information: It won the Caldecott Medal in 1994. This book’s genre is part of a biography because the characters’ names are the real names of the author’s grandpa’s family.

Summary: Peppe’s father is upset when he learns that Peppe has taken a job lighting the gas street lamps in his New York City neighborhood (taken from the inside cover of the book).

Literary Elements:

*       Setting: The setting is “a long time ago when there was no electricity.” It takes place in Little Italy in New York City.

*       Characters: The characterization of the main character, Peppe, is round. You see his feelings and emotions throughout his journey of his new job and life. The characterization of the rest of the characters (his family) is flat. You do not see as much of their emotions as Peppe’s.

*       Plot: The plot is when Peppe feels down about his job and realizes his little sister is lost. He gets back on his feet and lights up the streetlights again and finds his little sister.

*       Theme: Hope, family, love, self-esteem, and respect.

*       Style: The writing style was good. The text was just big enough to read. On some pages, it is a bit long as if they were paragraphs and overtakes the picture somewhat. However, it is not a major issue. As for the illustrations, I read online that they were patterns of dark and light as a symbol of hope. I completely agree.

Evaluation: This book is wonderful. It really pulls at your heartstrings when Peppe saves his little sister and his dad shows him newfound respect. It is a wonderful book for children to show them some of life’s greatest moments.

Social Justice Element: Self-love and knowledge: Peppe learns to love himself after his dad kept scolding him about his job. He learns to love himself when he realized that his job does help a lot of people see in the dark, and it even saved his little sister. He earns the respect of his whole family, including dad, after this happened. He felt that he had an identity then.

Follow up activity: I could ask the students this: “What do you want to be when you grow up? Why?” Also, we could make picture collages of their families and bring them home to show them as an act of love.