Gabriella on Her Bicycle: My Resistance Written for Kids

It is 26 September 1944, at the height of the Nazi occupation. In Bassano del Grappa, where Tina Anselmi lives, German forces hang 31 young partisans in the town square. The massacre shocks the seventeen-year-old student, who comes from a Catholic, anti-Fascist family, and she decides to join the Resistance. Her battle name is Gabriella. La Gabriella in bicicletta. La mia Resistenza raccontata ai ragazzi is the story of Gabriella the partisan courier, who for many months rides more than a hundred kilometres a day on her bicycle to keep the partisan units in contact. She carries underground newspapers, weapons, and messages, risking her life each day, yet greatly assisted by others who, like her, with the courage that comes from the certainty of being on the side of justice, are experiencing the Resistance first-hand. “There was a touch of recklessness, but above all, there was a deep conviction in what we were doing”, writes the author. This is a book that uses simple, direct language to explain the reasons behind the courageous decisions made by young people at that time, offering today’s youth a window into the ideals that defined the Resistance. These were the values that guided Tina Anselmi throughout her life, in service to her country and its institutions and history. “We must never forget what happened, or what it cost us, because history repeats itself, and there will be no one and nothing to save us if we betray that history by forgetting.” The book also includes fact sheets on the key moments in Fascism and the Resistance, brief portraits of figures such as Matteotti and Pertini, and moving letters written by partisans condemned to death.

Reading age: from 10 years

La Gabriella in bicicletta. La mia Resistenza raccontata ai ragazzi
Tina Anselmi, with an introduction by Laura Boldrini
Manni, 2019