I'm fairly clued up about the Resistance in France in WWII, but far less so about the situation of the partisans in Italy, so I seized upon this story by Shirley Hughes - her first for older children. Its main characters are two teenage children in Florence left with their English mother as their partisan father is - who knows here? - involved in the anti-Fascist struggle. There's also 13 year old Paolo's dog, and even more crucially, his bicycle. Hughes paints a convincing picture of a life of privation and fear under occupation, and makes clear that it's far too simple to think of war as being Goodies versus Baddies. It's a story of love and fear that should provoke thought as well as excite the imagination of its target readership. It would make a cracking film, too. ( )

great story end WW II in Italy - true to life
helped me understand how marriages between soldiers and Italian (or French or English) women could happen ( )

A big fan of Shirley Hughes's picture books, I ordered "Hero On A Bicycle" as soon as I read the positive NY Times review.

In her introduction, Hughes briefly recounts her own experience at 19 years old in war-torn Italy after WWII.

Despite Hughes's effort to delineate the complicated loyalties and predicaments that emerge in times of war, the plot was thin, the setting a mere sketch, and, while sympathetic, the characters seemed only partially realized. The whole book felt too restrained, as though the author wanted us to experience the brutality and complexity of WWII in Italy without shocking or scandalizing its young readers. Alas, the unfortunate result is often flat and didactic.

Near the conclusion, Rosemary, the long-suffering mother who helps the opposition to the occupying Nazis (also not unsympathetic), & tries to protect her children & household while her husband is gone fighting with the Partisans, thinks to herself: "When this war ends, it won't be a simple matter of defeat or victory. It will have spread its horrible, destructive tentacles out into all our lives long after the so-called peace has arrived."

I think that it is difficult for any writer to address such a huge topic, and that it is a worthy goal to elucidate history for children without psychic damage, but I think that it is best achieved when the writer limits his or her scope. ( )

A big fan of Shirley Hughes's picture books, I ordered "Hero On A Bicycle" as soon as I read the positive NY Times review.

In her introduction, Hughes briefly recounts her own experience at 19 years old in war-torn Italy after WWII.

Despite Hughes's effort to delineate the complicated loyalties and predicaments that emerge in times of war, the plot was thin, the setting a mere sketch, and, while sympathetic, the characters seemed only partially realized. The whole book felt too restrained, as though the author wanted us to experience the brutality and complexity of WWII in Italy without shocking or scandalizing its young readers. Alas, the unfortunate result is often flat and didactic.

Near the conclusion, Rosemary, the long-suffering mother who helps the opposition to the occupying Nazis (also not unsympathetic), & tries to protect her children & household while her husband is gone fighting with the Partisans, thinks to herself: "When this war ends, it won't be a simple matter of defeat or victory. It will have spread its horrible, destructive tentacles out into all our lives long after the so-called peace has arrived."

I think that it is difficult for any writer to address such a huge topic, and that it is a worthy goal to elucidate history for children without psychic damage, but I think that it is best achieved when the writer limits his or her scope. ( )

I thought this was a poorly titled and only adequately written tale. Yes, a boy and his family are faced with unusual challenges. But the circumstances themselves seem to be more in charge of the action than the people are. With the best of intentions, it was only luck that placed Paulo exactly where he could offer momentary assistance. It's really only when the Allies come through that the action gets a lift. ( )