Enjoyable young-adult novel about some young men taking part in Garibaldi's invasion of Sicily in 1860. It does have a plot with a villainous agent of the old regime, but for me, the interesting part was simply the fairly detailed description of the expedition itself and the battles Garibaldi fought. Brief accounts I had read had given me the impression that the invasion was practically a walkover with everyone cheering Garibaldi, but in fact as this book makes clear he was taking a scratch team of volunteers against a substantially larger professional army who put up real resistance. It confirmed my already considerable respect for Garibaldi. ( )