It was 1977 when a shoeshine boy, Emanuel Jaques, was brutally murdered in Toronto. In the aftermath of the crime, twelve-year-old Antonio Rebelo explores his neighborhood's dark garages and labyrinthine back alleys along with his rapscallion friends.
As the media unravels the truth behind the Shoeshine Boy murder, Antonio sees his immigrant family—and his Portuguese neighborhood—with new eyes, becoming aware of the frightening reality that no one is really taking care of him. So intent are his parents and his neighbors on keeping the old traditions alive that they act as if they still live in a small village, not in a big city that puts their kids in the kind of danger they would not dare imagine.
Antonio learns about bravery and cowardice, life and death, and the heart's capacity for love—and for cruelty—in this stunning novel.
- Available now
- New eBook additions
- New kids additions
- New teen additions
- Most popular
- Try something different
- See all
- Available now
- New audiobook additions
- New kids additions
- New teen additions
- Most popular
- Try something different
- See all
- Golden Dome Book Award 2024-2025
- The Red Clover Book Award 2024-2025
- Green Mountain Book Award 2024-2025
- Green Mountain Book Award 2023-2024
- Vermont Golden Dome Book Award 2023-2024
- Red Clover Book Award 2023-2024
- Vermont Golden Dome Book Award Master List 2022-2023
- Green Mountain Book Award 2022-2023
- Green Mountain Book Award 2021-2022
- Vermont Golden Dome Book Award Master List 2021-2022
- Dorothy Canfield Fisher 2019-2020
- Dorothy Canfield Fisher 2018-2019
- Green Mountain Book Award 2017-2018
- See all