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Gr 6–8—Renzo toils in a glass workshop in Italy in the late 1400s. He works ceaselessly to pass the glassmaker's tests and become an apprentice, an unlikely event given the scandal that colors his family's past. Studying nights, the teen desperately needs an assistant to succeed. When he meets Letta, a homeless waif, he secretly asks for her help. Letta has secrets, too. She is one of the "bird children," who seem to have mystical relationships with their...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

According to some historians (as Fletcher details in a note), glassmakers were forbidden to leave fifteenth-century Venice, lest they give away precious trade secrets. Still, Renzo's uncle Vittorio did leave, and as payback an assassin killed Renzo's father. Now the boy is a drudge for another glassmaker and striving to prove his talent, become an apprentice, and someday support his mother and sister. His efforts are complicated by ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More