Enrico Bottini is a student. He writes a diary about his class and classmates.
In the diary there are also nine stories written by Enrico’s teacher, Giulio Perboni.
One story for each month of the school year.
OCTOBER
Some acrobats buy the son of farmers. They travel across Europe.
The boy is sad. He decides to escape and to return to Italy.
On the boat he meets some foreign men who give him some money.
They make some comments against Italy, so the boy decides to give them the money back.
NOVEMBER
A boy acts as a guard at the top of a tree.
He warns the Italian soldiers of the arrival of Austrian soldiers. They see him and start shooting at the tree.
He can get down the tree, but doesn’t want to. Austrian soldiers shoot him in his chest, he falls and dies.
DECEMBER
Giulio comes from a very poor family.
The father cares a lot about his school and hopes his son will get a good job.
To support the family, the father works as a scribe by day and as a copier by night.
Giulio decides to continue his father’s work in secret when he goes to sleep.
The family’s income increases, but Giulio is not as good as before at school.
The father doesn’t know what is happening and is angry.
One night he finds Giulio at work.
The father apologises to him: he didn’t understand Giulio was helping the family.
JANUARY
During the War of Independence a group of Italian soldiers is surrounded in a farmhouse by the Austrians.
A small drummer boy succeeds in getting out from a window. He tries to reach another group of Italians and request for help.
The Austrians see the drummer boy and start shooting. The boy continues to run.
Later the drummer boy is in the hospital. He is alive, but he has lost one leg.
FEBRUARY
Ciccillo goes to Naples to visit his father in the hospital.
Ciccillo calls his father “Tata“.
The nurses bring him in a room of a dying man: they think the dying man is his father.
Here Ciccillo helps the sick person and cries: he think the dying man is his father, too!
When he hears a man’s voice leaving the hospital, he recognizes his father. He is healthy and ready to go home.
Ciccillo is happy, but decides to stay one more night with the unknown dying man.
MARCH
Ferruccio spent the day with bad friends. His grandmother is angry about that.
The rest of the family is away until the next day.
Suddenly two thieves break into the house and steal the money.
As they try to escape, one of the thieves loses his mask, revealing that he is a local delinquent.
The thief is about to murder the grandmother, but Ferruccio stands in front and dies protecting her.
APRIL
A boy is drowning in the river.
Another one sees the scene and risks his life to save him.
The mayor of the town decides to reward him with a medal.
At the ceremony there are many people.
After the speech, the mayor awards him with a medal.
The boy who had been saved emerges from the audience and runs gratefully into the savior’s arms.
MAY
Marco decides to visit his mother. She is in Argentina working for a family.
His mother is very ill because she refuses to be operated.
Marco’s journey is long and full of adventures.
He has to cross Argentina without knowing his exact destination.
Even thought the boy has no money, he does not want to give up and he continues on foot.
When he finds his mother, she decides to undergo the surgery and survives.
JUNE
Little Mario is an orphan.
He is traveling on a vessel from Liverpool to Malta.
On the vessel he meets a girl from Italy, Giuditta.
The two become friends.
During the night a storm breaks the ship.
Mario and Giuditta are clinging to one of the masts.
A lifeboat arrives and Mario can sit in the last place.
The boy knows that Giuditta has her parents waiting for her.
He offers her his place and the lifeboat takes off.
The sea in a suction covers the ship and Mario dies.