Middle-Grade Review: Ice Cream Boy by Lindsay Littleson

Luca lives in Glasgow, Scotland with his mother, who is very busy selling surgical products, and grandmother, Nonna. His father has left the family and returned to the town in Italy that his own grandfather came from, Barga, and is running a bed and breakfast there. The grandfather had come to Glasgow because the ship to the US made him and his wife too seasick, and the pair had started Verani’s cafe. This is still run by Luca’s aunt Julia and her husband, who isn’t the best businessman. Luca, who does not like school and is rather a cut up, dreams that one day he will run the cafe. Why does he need school? He would rather play video games instead of doing homework, and hang out with his friends Kamal and Sitara. Nonna is supposed to look after him, but when she starts behaving erratically, he is worried, but doesn’t want to tell his mother. When he finds out that the cafe is not doing well, and that his aunt might close it down and move to Barga to help his father, he knows he must come up with a plan. There is a Glasgow Recipes from Around the World Contest, Luca is sure that he can win it with his great grandfather’s original ice cream recipe, and use the fame to save the cafe. Nonna is lucid enough to give him some direction, and using vanilla pods and more expensive cream than the cafe is currently using, he manages to recreate the brilliant ice cream that made the cafe popular in the past. He also has to deal with schoolmates and town residents who are racist, and Kamal and Sitara both have incidents that disturb them. He gets letters from his father, and talks to Nonna, and finds out that it wasn’t easy for Italian immigrants like his great grandfather back in the 1940s, so is even more concerned with helping his friends deal with the “racist numpties”. Even though the contest is promising, and he is set to spend a few days visiting his father in Barga and his aunt and uncle, Nonna’s situation is not improving. She wanders off, and has several accidents that endanger her. While Luca isn’t wild about her going into a care facility, his aunt and mother seem to think it is for the best. As Luca gets ready to enter high school, how will he deal with all of the changes in his life?