Alligator Bayou Analysis

On a big picture level, our story takes place in the post-Civil War South, a place teeming with racism and confusion as a society—and economy—structured on free labor (and by free we mean no co...

Our main man, Calogero, is also our narrator in this book, and he tells us exactly what is going on as he sees it, in addition to sharing his thoughts with us. He seems like a pretty trustworthy du...

Young Adult Pro tip: When a story features a young adult, you just might be reading a book that falls under the young adult literature genre. Go figure, right? And since this book is pretty much Ca...

The tone Calogero brings to the text as our narrator makes perfect sense given who he is as a character: a fourteen-year-old immigrant, new to the country and far away from any true family. He does...

SimpleThere is nothing complicated about the way Calo talks or thinks as the narrator of this story. His sentences are easy to follow and typically short. The most interesting and least simple part...

Alligator Bayou isn't just the name of the book—it's also the name of the place (okay, more like swamp) where Charles and the boys take Calo and his cousin Cirone to hunt down an alligator. So in...

As the book ends, Calogero is swept away on the current of the great river, and as he floats, he thinks about the family he has lost and his brother, Rocco, who he hopes to find and connect with. C...

Make no bones about it: Alligator Bayou is an easy read. The language is generally kept simple, though there are a few words and phrases that are either Italian or old time slangy. The story's...

New Kid on the Block It's 1899, and Calogero is new to Tallulah, Louisiana. He is staying with some men he calls his uncles who run a grocery in town. He sees one of his uncles, Francesco, get...

Donna Jo Napoli's favorite young adult lit book is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. (Source) There is a fox that Napoli's family loves, and she thinks she might write a fox story someday. What would the...

Calogero gets his first kiss in this book, but there are no details about it. He also gets a few more short and sweet kisses from Patricia, his girl, but it doesn't go any further—or get any juic...

Jim Crow (2.33, 6.94)Jefferson Davis (6.32, 7.54, 7.61)Black Hawk (8.6)Theodore Roosevelt (16.77)President Harrison (16.78)