Wonderful story. I love your style--it's elegant, but not pretentious. I look forward to reading your other work.

Wow. That was beautifully written, and amazing to read. The fact that Luccio was a puppet was a nice touch, although it gave me the shivers. I do, however, have one complaint:

Luccio's accent, or at least grammar, strikes me as wrong. I guess you could attribute it to his father's controlling him, but even then it doesn't make sense. You see, kids pick up new languages quite quickly-and in seocnd grade, Luccio would still be able to learn good English. Being around people with American accents would, I think, make his Italian accent less heavy, and by fifth grade his grammar would be a lot better than you described it as being.

This is a small thing, not difficult to explain away with some effort. However, I think that it should be taken into account, and perhaps be changed if you think you can do that without rearranging Luccio's character.

Besides what I pointed out, though, lovely story, I really mean it. It kept me reading all the way through, and I the end was...fitting, I guess would be the proper word. Good work.