Don­na Jo Napoli has writ­ten an unfor­get­table sequel to her excel­lent World War IIthemed young adult nov­el, Stones in Water (Dut­ton, 1997). Rober­to, a young Ital­ian boy, con­tin­ues his dan­ger­ous jour­ney home to Venice after his har­row­ing escape from a forced labor camp in Ger­many. His Jew­ish friend Samuele has not sur­vived. After many haz­ards, he final­ly reach­es Italy, but it is not his Italy. It is a dan­ger­ous Italy, pop­u­lat­ed by Nazis. Although the Allies are forc­ing the Nazi occu­piers north, bat­tles rage in cities and in the coun­try­side. Rober­to, who speaks Eng­lish, a fact that saves his life, is tak­en as an inter­preter by Kurt, a Nazi offi­cer, and forced to inter­pret Kurt’s com­mands as he search­es out Ital­ian ​“raga­muffins,” who are real­ly resis­tance fight­ers. At last Rober­to escapes and joins the resis­tance him­self, when he meets some unfor­get­table brave young peo­ple, espe­cial­ly the girl whose par­ti­san name is ​“Volpe Rossa.” Based on some of Napoli’s friends’ wartime expe­ri­ences, she want­ed Amer­i­can read­ers to learn about the Ital­ian par­ti­giani fight­ers, whose sto­ries are not often told for young adults. Ages 11 and up.