Gabriella Mezzacappa

Sofia and the Tomato sauce Gabriella Mezzacappa

Sofia lives in New York with her big family: her mom, dad, her Nonna Anna and Nonno. She is American but her family comes from Napoli, in Italy. At the end of every summer Sofia is always happy because it's time to help her Nonna Anna with the tomato sauce. It's an Italian old family tradition, shared through the generations and Sofia likes it very much. Her innocent and genuine kid's eyes can see how magic the tradition is and since she doesn't believe in diversities, she assumes that everyone in the world knows the tradition of the tomatoes ... This book wants to represent a simple way to teach kids the positive power of diversity. As a matter of fact, as young children enter their first years of school, they'll get to know peers with a wide variety of abilities, cultures, languages and backgrounds. It becomes totally natural for them to notice similarities and differences and express curiosity and it's up to the grownups in their lives to not only model acceptance of diversity, but to frame it as a strength. The background of the story here is Italian American, leaving directly from my family experience of immigrants about a hundred years ago, when bravely enough they abandoned the mother country to realize their American Dream.