The Sky is Falling

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Penny and Baby, two orphaned girls, recount the final days of fascism through their eyes as war approaches and anti-Semitic persecution affects their adopted uncle. The girls do not understand the world in a general sense, but they possess a rich mythology filled with figures from catechism, fascist propaganda, games with farmers, and life with their great uncle and his guests. This mythology encompasses justice, revenge, good, and evil, while strictly excluding History and its reasons, such as war and persecution, which are foreign to their experience. When war intrudes upon their lives, Penny and Baby encapsulate their pain in a darkness that does not alter their childhood. Published in 1961, Lorenza Mazzetti's book received recognition and awards, including the Viareggio Prize, for its ability to express the innocence of children in the face of horror. Its magical and poetic simplicity suggests a new pact of civilization: to exclude from History all that a child cannot explain, keeping their mythology alive.