Review: All the Way to America

All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel
By Dan Yaccarino
Published 2011 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

This is another non-fiction picture book that I picked up at the library. Yaccarino tells the story of his family's immigration from Italy and the little shovel that accompanied them through it all. This is a nice little story of Yaccarino's family and how they came to America - changing the spelling of their name, searching for work, and using that little shovel sort of as a tribute to generations past. Normally, I wouldn't imagine that Yaccarino's illustration style would work for such a straightforward and serious story as this is, but, wonderfully, it does indeed work here. The illustrations are creative and interesting and I think they show the Yaccarino flair. I think this would be a wonderful book for storytimes - it's easy to imagine this as a jumping off point for discussions of our families and the traditions we have kept alive through the generations. A lovely book for children.