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THE KING OF MULBERRY STREET Donna Jo Napoli Hardcover | Wendy Lamb Books | October 2005 | $15.95 | 0-385-74653-9 | Ages 8-12 Hardcover Library Binding | Wendy Lamb Books | October 2005 | $17.99 | 0-385-90890-3 | Ages 8-12

Could you survive on your own with no money? What if you were in a foreign country and didn’t speak the language? For Beniamino, this is the life he faces as a nine-year-old. His mother saves her money to buy him passage as a stowaway on a ship headed for America. She thinks that in America he will be able make a better life for himself than the one he has in Italy. When Beniamino finds himself in America, knowing no one, and without a penny to his name, it doesn’t take long for him to grow up and become wiser than a typical nine-year-old. Angry at his mother for putting him in this situation, he does all he can to survive. He changes his name to Dom, stays away from the gangs that cause trouble, and uses his creativity to start his own business, hoping to earn enough money to buy his passage back to Italy and his family. It isn’t long, however, until the friends he makes in New York teach him what family is really all about.

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Prepared by Brenda Day, Library Media Specialist, Crowley Middle School, Crowley, Texas

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