The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I am having a book club meeting to discuss The Baron in the Trees, by Calvino. In Italo Calvino's fable Baron in the Trees the young Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò retreated from a family dinnertime squabble and took to the trees vowing never to return to the ground again. Before we can even speak, we try holding our breath to get our way. KEVIN BROCKMEIER: The Baron in the Trees. Italo Calvino's The Baron in the Trees is a tale of a young boy, Cosimo, who at the age of twelve climbs into the trees in rebellion and independence against his parents and vows to never come down. I am having the hardest time finding discussion questions. Not so fantastic at keeping them, but fantastic at making them. Italo Calvino's novel, The Baron in the Trees is what it says on the tin. At twelve years old, Cosimo Rondo Piovasco decides to climb a tree in the family yard not to go down ever. The title's not metaphorical; it's actually about a Baron who lives in the trees. The music of Susanna & the Magical Orchestra. The first one is The Baron on the Trees (Il Barone Rampante, 1957). Young people are fantastic at making dramatic vows. The final Nascimbene/Calvino installment, The Baron in the Trees, came in 2005 and is virtually impossible to find online, but your local library might have a copy. The novels that follow are Il Barone Rampante (The Baron in the Trees) and Il Cavaliere Inesistente (The Nonexistent Knight, 1959). Italo Calvino's novel, The Baron in the Trees (Random House, 1959), concerned an Italian nobleman who took to the trees as a boy and never came down to earth again. It is absolutely breathtaking: Donating = Loving. His 1957 novel, Il Barone Rampante (The Baron in the Trees in English translation), however, might be his most picturesque. The story is set in the region of Liguria (by the French Riviera) in the 18th century, before the Italian unification (1870).