Alligator Bayou

Barbara Ward

Fourteen-year-old Calogero lives in Tallulah, Louisiana, in 1899 with his hard-working Italian family. Providing produce for their neighbors, his self-reliant immigrant uncles struggle with the new language and encounter bigotry in surprising places. Having seen unexpected prejudice in New Orleans, they stick to themselves and try to earn a living. Nevertheless, there are neighbors who resent their self-sufficiency and their ignorance of the town's social mores regarding race mixing, and even their trust in one of the town's leading citizens proves misguided. Misunderstandings escalate into mob violence, and being innocent means nothing when the livelihood of others is threatened. The anger grows gradually, juxtaposed against Calogero's own dreams of the future and his budding affection for Patricia, a black girl who lives near town. Expanding readers' understandings of the causes and results of prejudices, the author describes effectively the earthy Louisiana bayous and the emotional tempests that sweep the small town. Reviewer: Barbara Ward

Publishers Weekly

Based on the 1899 lynching of five Italian immigrants, this thought-provoking book draws its power from vivid depictions of late-19th-century Louisiana and little-known historical facts. Settled in smalltown Tallulah, 14-year-old Calogero and a handful of other Sicilian immigrants find themselves isolated: by law they are not "white," but white people discourage them from mixing with Negroes (the sheriff, forbidding Calogero to attend the town school, advises him that he'd be better off uneducated than attending the Negroes' school). But social pressure doesn't keep Calogero from a budding romance with smart, pretty Patricia, even after he's almost beaten up for "fraternizing with them cotton pickers." Napoli (Hush) sketches out some economic and political roots of racism as the white citizens' resentment of the Sicilians builds. While the author leaves some seams showing in her attempt to incorporate background information, her protagonists are convincingly vulnerable, and the violent climax will ensure that readers remember her message. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)

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Children's Literature - Uma Krishnaswami

As in The King of Mulberry Street, Napoli returns here to the stories of Italian immigrants. This is a fascinating, moving story set in the small Louisiana town of Tallulah in 1899. Fourteen-year-old Calogero from Sicily is one of only six Sicilians in the area. Calo and his family, concerned with the business of making a living, get caught in the middle of simmering racial tensions between the Negro and white communities. The word "lynch" is planted early in the book. Even before Calo understands what it means, he knows that it symbolizes something terrible, and the reader is simultaneously made aware of a terrifying event toward which the story is making its unerring progress. Napoli's first person narrative is clean and spare, weaving tastes, smells, and beliefs of Sicilian origin into the race relations of that place and time. Grounded in the needs and longings of its young protagonist, this story is in turn loving and tense, as in the gator-hunting scene and the accounts of the lynching in New Orleans that the men carry in collective memory. The scenes with Patricia move from awkward and comical to sweet and romantic. In places the prose is quite simply perfect: "That swamp is a live thing with an empty heart that beats anyway." As the story progresses, Calo's youthful negligence unleashes a dreadful and inevitable chain of events that derives directly from the real events of that time. There is no resolution in the traditional sense, just the ache of terrible injustice and a bitter leave-taking that nonetheless manages to end with hope. Napoli's detailed research notes and historical afterword constitute back matter in this thought-provoking, memorable book. Reviewer: UmaKrishnaswami

Children's Literature - Candice Ransom

The year is 1899. Fourteen-year-old Sicilian Calogero is a newcomer to Tallulah, Louisiana, a place where ‘gators glide through dark swamps and racism is a dangerous undercurrent. Calo lives with his uncles and cousins. The immigrants grow vegetables to sell at a roadside stand and at their grocery store in town. Calo and his thirteen-year-old cousin Cirone have much to learn about American ways, particularly the differences between African Americans and whites. Calo learns English and tries to fit in. He makes the serious mistake of falling in love with Patricia, an African American girl. Calo wonders why his uncles and cousins are so isolated in Tallulah, living such a dodgy existence. He wonders why they are not in New Orleans, where there is a large community of Sicilians. He learns the shocking truth, that Sicilians are not wanted anywhere—not in New Orleans where several Italians were lynched. And, as it turns out, they are not welcome in Tallulah either. As the summer grows hotter, so do tensions between whites and Calo's relatives. A spark of misunderstanding ignites an explosion of hatred. Calo's uncles and cousins are trapped by an angry murderous mob. With the help of Patricia's brothers, Calo escapes. In straightforward prose, Napoli takes this little known event in our history out from under the rug and gives it a good shaking. Reviewer: Candice Ransom

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up

Building on her extensive research conducted after reading a newspaper article about the lynching of Sicilian grocers in Tallulah, LA, in 1899, Napoli presents a moving, sobering story about an aspect of American immigration that is probably unknown to most readers. After his mother's death, 14-year-old Calogero leaves his bustling Sicilian home for the sleepy southern town to help his uncles and younger cousin run their grocery store. White customers expect to be served before blacks and make their displeasure angrily apparent when the Sicilians fail to do so. Barred from the white school and unaware that he can attend the black school, Calogero learns English from a tutor who also tries to help him comprehend Southern American behavior. The cousins meet some African American boys who take them on a terrifying alligator hunt that firmly cements their friendship. Calogero is attracted to Patricia, a African American girl, but fails to fully understand the danger behind her fear of being seen in public with him. Although he has heard his uncles' stories of the recent lynching of Sicilians in New Orleans, he is unprepared for the horrifying tragedy that befalls his family when a local white doctor kills Uncle Francesco's goats and then convinces an angry mob that the Sicilians plan to retaliate violently. Historical events are smoothly integrated with vivid everyday details, strong characterizations, and genuine-sounding dialogue. Ultimately, the author expands her themes beyond the story's specifics, encouraging readers to reconsider the motivations behind this calamity and other manifestations of racism.-Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA

Kirkus Reviews

A haunting story based on a tragic historical event-the lynching of a group of Italian men in Tallulah, La., in 1899. Recently orphaned, 14-year-old Calogero has moved from Sicily to Louisiana to work with his father's friends in their produce business. Although the Sicilians are prospering, Calo learns that their social position is precarious. In a town strictly divided between black and white, Sicilians are considered neither, and furthermore, they carry undeserved reputations as cheats and murderers. The Sicilians' insistence on treating customers of all races with respect, their thrift-townsfolk complain that they take in money but do not spend it-and the fact they can't seem to keep their goats off other people's property combine to ignite a spark of unspeakable violence. All five members of Calo's new family are murdered. Only Calo escapes with his life. Napoli brings social issues into sharp focus but balances them with details about Calo's everyday life, creating an engaging story with many avenues to deep reflection on our country's treatment, past and present, of its immigrants. (afterword, notes on research) (Historical fiction. 12 & up)