Ten-year-old Luca lives in Fos­sa, a town in the Abruz­zo region of Italy. Luca has been liv­ing with his grand­fa­ther, Non­no Rober­to, since the death of his par­ents in a car acci­dent five years ago. The book begins when a major earth­quake strikes the region. Although Luca and his non­no are unharmed, their house is destroyed, and the town is dev­as­tat­ed. Based on a true sto­ry, Friends to the Res­cue fol­lows Luca as he tries to cope with the after­math of the earth­quake. He wants to help his friends and neigh­bors, but, con­front­ed with death and destruc­tion, he is over­come by fear.

Inter­wo­ven with Luca’s sto­ry is that of his grand­fa­ther. Non­no Rober­to was about Luca’s age when, in 1943, his fam­i­ly shel­tered Jew­ish refugees from Nazi-occu­pied Rome. Hid­ing a fam­i­ly of three in their cold base­ment room puts Rober­to and his par­ents in dan­ger — but, like many fam­i­lies from the region, they know it’s the right thing to do. Rober­to, ini­tial­ly skep­ti­cal of the arrange­ment, bonds with the Jew­ish girl, Sara, over their shared love of com­ic books and foot­ball (soc­cer). Fol­low­ing the war, Rober­to and Sara lose touch. Then, a few days after the earth­quake, Luca and his non­no are sur­prised by the arrival of a bus­load of helpers from abroad. Among them is Sara, now elder­ly and a nurse, who has come from Israel to return a favor to the town and peo­ple who res­cued her.

With charm­ing illus­tra­tions, this mid­dle-grade nov­el por­trays dan­ger, friend­ship, hope, and hero­ism in an age-appro­pri­ate way. It sheds light on a lit­tle-known episode of World War II his­to­ry and hon­ors the Ital­ian town whose peo­ple were deemed Right­eous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.