Alligator Bayou
Alligator Bayou
Alligator Bayou
Donna Jo Napoli
Talullah, Louisiana. 1899.Calogero, his uncles, and cousins are six Sicilian men living in the small town of Tallulah, Louisiana. They work hard, growing vegetables and selling them at their stand and in their grocery store.To 14-year-old Calogero, newly arrived from Sicily, Tallulah is a lush world full of contradictions, hidden rules, and tension between the Negro and white communities. He’s startled and thrilled by the danger of a ’gator hunt in the midnight bayou, and by his powerful feelings for Patricia, a sharpwitted, sweet-natured Negro girl. Some people welcome the Sicilians. Most do not. Calogero’s family is caught in the middle: the whites don’t see them as equal, but befriending Negroes is dangerous. Every day brings Calogero and his family closer to a a terrifying, violent confrontation.

Book Details

Genre: 

  • Fiction
  • Juvenile Fiction

Age Level: 

  • 12 and up
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Loosely based on a true story, and developed as an exposition on cultural tensions in the nineteenth century, Alligator Bayou traces the journey of a fourteen year old Sicilian migrant who is thrust into a milieu hostile to his very existence. The story revolves around Calogero, the fourteen year old migrant, and the experiences and occurrences in the racially-charged town of Tallulah, Louisiana.

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