A breathtaking immigration tale with appeal across generations When a little girl visits her great-grandfather at his curio-filled home she chooses an unusual object to learn about an old cigar box What she finds inside surprises her a collection of matchboxes making up her great-grandfather's diary containing objects she can hold in her hand each one evoking a memory Together they tell of his journey from Italy to a new country before he could read & write
- the olive stone his mother gave him to suck on when there wasn't enough food; a hairpin he found on the boat; a ticket still retaining the thrill of his first baseball game With a narrative entirely in dialogue Paul Fleischman makes immediate the two characters' foray into the past With warmth & an uncanny eye for detail Bagram Ibatoulline gives expressive life to their journey through time
- & towards each other