Bartali's Bicycle

The True Story of Gino Bartali, Italy's Secret Hero

Quill Tree Books

(HarperCollins Publishers)

(pub. 2.23.2021) 

40 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Megan Hoyt
       and illustrator: Iacopo Bruno

C haracter: Gino Bartali

O verview:

       

    "Gino Bartali pedaled across Italy for years, winning one cycling race after another, including the 1938 Tour de France. Gino became an international sports hero! But the next year, World War II began, and it changed everything. Soldiers marched into Italy. Tanks rolled down the cobbled streets of Florence. And powerful leaders declared that Jewish people should be arrested.

     To the entire world, Gino Bartali was merely a champion cyclist. But Gino’s greatest achievement was something he never told a soul—that he secretly worked with the Italian resistance to save hundreds of Jewish men, women, and children, and others, from certain death, using the one thing no authority would question: his bicycle."

T antalizing taste: 

     "He knocked on doors and delivered small packages. With a quick nod, he was off again, leaving startled families to wonder: Was that the famous Tour de France winner, Gino Bartali? Was he now a secret courier for the resistance?

     By the time they realized who he was, Gino was speeding toward the next town." 

 And something more:  In her Author's Note, Megan Hoyt explains that "when DELASEM (Delegation for the Assistance of Jewish Emigrants) leader Giorgio Nissim died, his sons found diaries filled with information about Gino Bartali's rescue efforts. Without these diaries, the world may never have known about Gino's work. And there is a reason for that. Gino did not want anyone to know.

     'Those who have suffered in their soul, in their heart, in their spirit, in their mind, for their loved ones are the real heroes,' Gino said. 'I am just a cyclist.'"