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Loosely based on the recollections of her grandfather, Elisa Bartone’s Peppe follows a young boy’s first job as an apprentice lamplighter on Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy. Ted Lewin’s remarkable paintings are dark and menecingly reflect the feeling of a turn-of-the-century tenement-ridden immigrant neighborhood. Peppe’s fight to find worth in his labor, despite his father’s antagonism, is at the heart of the tale. A Fine first edition in a Fine dust jacket, this has an inscription and signature by Lewin on the front endpaper as well as both an additional Lewin signature and one by Bastone on the title page. A 1994 Caldecott Honor Book.