This is the story of two brothers, Giacomo and Giovanni, and their family. It's not an ordinary family—it's a special one, because Giovanni has Down syndrome. When their parents announced the arrival of a special child, Giacomo imagined him as a superhero. Though the family created a normal household, Giacomo hides his brother from the outside world, which sees Giovanni only as a boy with almond eyes, a strangely shaped head, his tongue out—a figure of mockery. Then one summer, during a performance of "The Lion King," Giovanni vanishes. The brothers find him onstage, avenging himself on Simba (the good lion). Giacomo is about to stand up when his sister Chiara stops him and says: "Let him. There's no rule that stories have to end the way they're written."
After this and other moments like it, Giacomo begins to see his brother differently. He learns to appreciate Giovanni's joy, his exuberant way of being with others. He notices that the people around them love Giovanni too, and that they find funny, playful ways to enter his world—a world of serenity, a hunger to live each moment without the structures society imposes on us. Giacomo slowly steps into this world. He becomes a spy with Giovanni to meet a singer, a thief stealing his sister's camera. Joy and enthusiasm bind these two brothers together more tightly than ever, making them special. In the end, Giacomo realizes: Giovanni really is a superhero. This is a book of joyful moments, bitter ones, and hilarious ones. But it asks us to think—to really think—about how we relate to people with disabilities, relationships too often locked in place by prejudice and needless fear.
Maria Novella Pulieri, 2016