Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Violence: A few street brawls with punching and kicking. Giuseppe is beaten up by two thugs. A child laborer in a factory is hit with a belt for talking.

Adult Themes: Children are forced to perform/beg on the street to earn money for their padrone. These children have either been stolen from or sold by their families. If they do not bring in enough money they are thrown in the rat cellar, or worse. A character was abandoned by his mother. He is treated poorly at the orphanage and forced to work long hours in a factory. A character acts as a medium and on one occasion communicates with a spirit. Children steal.

Synopsis

Giuseppe, Hannah and Frederick are three  young characters each struggling with an adult-sized problem. Having been orphaned in Italy, Guiseppe’s uncle sells him to an evil man who then brings him to America, leaving his brother and sister behind. He is forced to play the fiddle on the street in order to earn money for his padrone, Stefano. When he happens across an almost magical green violin, his nightly intake goes up dramatically and he plans to stash his extra earnings to save up for passage back to Italy. But when Stefano discovers his deceit, Guiseppe is in real danger.

When Hannah’s father is struck with an illness she is forced to quit school and work in a hotel to support her parents and younger sisters. One day she overhears her boss speaking to another hotel employee about a hidden treasure. Hannah decides to search for it, knowing that if she can find it she will be able to get her family out of their tenement building and buy medicine for her father. Her desperation drives her to drastic measures and she incurs the wrath of her boss and the disappointment of someone who has taken her under their wing. Hannah faces losing her job and her family’s devastation unless she can find the treasure before someone else does.

Frederick is an orphan who is apprenticed to an elderly clockmaker. He desperately wants to make journeyman, but none of Master Branch’s former apprentices have ever done so. Worried that he will fail as his predecessors have, he begins secretly working on an automaton man that he hopes will earn him the title he desires.

When Guiseppe, Hannah and Frederick become acquainted, they realize that their problems, although daunting,  can be handled with the help of their friends.

I listened to this on audio and quite enjoyed the tale of friendship and perseverance through trials. There is a little mystery thrown in as Hannah hunts for the treasure and Frederick searches for the mother who abandoned him.

I appreciated the inclusion of several actual articles, published in the New York Times in 1873, concerning a young boy, Joseph, who was stolen from Italy and brought to New York City. Forced to play music on the streets in order to earn money for his padrone, Joseph spent several years a victim of both physical and emotional abuse, until he found the courage to escape.  The true story of Joseph inspired Matthew Kirby in the writing of Guiseppe’s story in The Clockwork Three.

Recommended for grades 5 and up.