Separated from Santo | Review

Today we have a guest review for a new writer that we hope will become a regular at GC4K! Mao Reynolds is a recent graduate of Loyola University Chicago and is currently working as a puzzle production assistant at The Mystery League. He is a former writer and editor of The Loyola Phoenix, where he also made the weekly crossword.

Separated from Santo
Writer: Brian Barazzuol
Illustrator: Cam Drysdale
Colorist: Alex Doftoreanu
Heritage House Publishing: $24.95
Publisher’s rating: Ages 16 and up

Santo and Alice Pasqualini flee fascist Italy and restart their lives in an East Vancouver neighborhood called Strathcona. They welcome two children, Lena and Lino, and open the Paris Bakery. But when a group of Italian Canadians, the Circolo Giulio Giordani, offers Santo a free trip to Italy for the upcoming Catholic holy year — on the condition of him signing support for Benito Mussolini, co-founder of Fascism — the family dream crumbles. The Royal Canadian Mountain Police arrest Santo under the War Measures Act, despite Santo holding no fascist sympathies, and intern him in camps farther and farther from Vancouver. The rest of the sepia-toned story reveals the physical, mental and financial toll of Santo’s internment. Barazzuol, the great-grandson of Santo, partnered with Drysdale to remember his ancestor’s life. The book is educational and emotional, with a poem connecting each warmly-colored chapter to the next. Barazzuol includes informative notes, interviews, testimonies and photos from Santo’s life for further reference.

This is an informative, accessible story aimed at readers unfamiliar with the history of Canadian internment camps. The topic is specific, but its themes of family, loss and hope will resonate with any reader.

Filed under: Reviews, Young Adult