Spit the Pit: An Italian-American Folktale

By Doug Lia and Mara Hesed

Spit the Pit: An Italian-American Folktale is the story of two Italians who immigrate to New York, meet, and marry. Together in Little Italy, Peter and Rosa begin a family of three children. As the children grow, Peter and Rosa move further from the Italian neighborhood. As the years pass, the children have children of their own, and soon Peter and Rosa are the grandparents of twelve lively grandchildren.

In an attempt to instill some Italian heritage in his grandchildren, Peter plays a game where the children eat Italian olives and then spit the pit in a contest to see who can get the pit the farthest in the clean driveway. Soon the parents of the grandchildren get involved and introduce a new gamean American tradition. The children find themselves along with their parents enjoying watermelon and spitting seeds in a new contest. The prizes may be different, but everyone enjoys themselves as Grandma Rosa and Grandpa Peter observe. The final pages find Grandma supervising the cleanup of her driveway to the cheers of Bravo!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524620592

Doug Lia

Doug Lia was born and raised in New York in an Italian American family. After graduating from high school, he attended Cornell College in Iowa and began his teaching career as a fourth-grade teacher in a small rural Iowa town. He moved to the Chicago suburbs after two years to become a second-grade teacher and began his graduate degree. He earned a master’s degree and a reading specialist certificate before beginning his doctoral work in literacy at Northern Illinois University. He earned his doctorate and moved from the classroom to administrating in both rural and urban school districts. After retiring from the public schools, he began his role as a college professor. He taught both graduate and undergraduate students in teacher preparation programs in Chicago area universities. He now teaches at Chicago State University, where he has earned the position of associate professor of literacy education in the College of Education. He has been published in educational journals and also has a chapter in a book on early childhood. Having lived in the city for over seventeen years, he now resides in a Chicago suburb with his husband. He has three grown children and five grandchildren. He enjoys reading, gardening, and spending time with his family. Spit the Pit is his first children’s book.

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