Before Nightfall by Silvia Vecchini illustrated by Sualzo translated by Geoffrey Brock

Carlo can't hear

Carlo can't see out of one of  eyes

Carlo was hurt and cut

open and sewn shut

in so many places.

I won't name them all because

it would be like playing

Operation

and always going buzzzzz

This verse novel is narrated by Emma. Her brother Carlo is hearing impaired and blind in one eye. His second eye is now failing and so Carlo will need an operation. The pages where Carlo recovers in hospital are the most powerful part of this book as each page is black (with white text) and so as a reader I really felt the pain of complete sight loss. Carlo did go to school with his sister but:

Because one again we received

a notice from school

Carlo won't be allowed

to continue to attend

none of the teachers there

are qualified to 

talk

think

create

invent

learn

stay

with him

So now Carlo is being homeschooled by his parents and everyone is trying to learn sign language but what will happen if Carlo can no longer see their hands?

This book is aimed at a Young Adult audience. It is a complex book to read and understand even though it only has 109 pages. It demands to be read very slowly because Silvia Vecchini does not fill any story gaps - you have to work things out for yourself. Between each section of verse there are narrative pages where we meet other people in Carlo's life:

Something different between the verse are different points of view from people in Carlo’s life. A school official, a sibling, a school friend and a local shopkeeper. A nurse and then Carlo himself, whose POV is portrayed in white text on black pages, signifying the darkness around him as he waits to see if his limited sight is restored. What book next

Publisher blurb: A moving tale about a brave hearing-impaired teen losing his vision, told through the perspective of his loving sister in poetry, prose, and the sign-language alphabet. Carlo is a teenager who happens to be hearing-impaired and can see only out of one eye. Now that eye is failing, and Carlo must have an operation to try to save his vision. His fierce and funny sister Emma, Carlo’s closest companion, begins writing poems that express the fear she works hard to hide, while his seeing-eye dog Lulù remains steadfastly at his side. But even with the support and affection of his family, how can Carlo face such uncertainty? And what will happen if he can no longer communicate with them? Before Nightfall is a book about trust, imagination, empathy, and language, narrated through the poems Emma types and through prose passages told from multiple perspectives and illustrated with sign-language alphabet, drawn by the Italian artist Sualzo. Despite the immense challenges Carlo and Emma face, their story is one of hope and wonder.

I picked this book up in Readings Kids in Melbourne. I probably would not have found Before Nightfall, but it had been miss-shelved with the Middle Grade books - it is most certainly a YA title. The book price sticker shows this too. You know that I rarely read YA but I am pleased I made this discovery, and I am keen to share this book with a literary friend. 

Silvia Vecchini was born in 1975 in Perugia. She loves poetry and has written several books for children and young adults. Antonio “Sualzo” Vincenti is an author and comics illustrator. He won the Festi'DB di Moulins in 2009, best screenplay category, for L'Improvvisatore, and was named finalist in the Micheluzzi Award in 2010. Geoffrey Brock is the author of two collections of poems, the editor of The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry, and the translator of books by Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, Roberto Calasso, and others. His translation of Pinocchio appears in both the NYRB Classics series and the New York Review Children’s Collection. He teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Translation at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Awards for Before Nightfall:

• Strega Ragazzi Prize 2021 Finalist
• Cento Prize 2020 Finalist
• Orbil Award 2020 Finalist
• Giovanni Arpino Prize 2020 Finalist

I do hope this book has been submitted by IBBY in Italy for our IBBY Collection for Young People with Disabilities. 

The IBBY Collection located at the Toronto Public Library features a large international selection of books for and about young people with disabilities. The books are chosen by the IBBY National Sections, as well as by independent experts and publishers. Take a look at our Australian titles which are part of this collection. 

Highlights of the Collection include:

• 4000+ books in over 40 languages
• special formats such as Blissymbolics, PCS, Braille, sign language, tactile and textile books
• fiction books that portray children and teens with disabilities as characters in stories and novels
•  books for adults with developmental delays, language disabilities or reading difficulties