The illustrations are oil and pastel, with spicily rich colors in deceptively simple small-town compositions. Hillenbrand gives a [Giorgio] de Chirico slant to many perspectives (an incoming train presents a visible Doppler effect), but he never takes attention away from the people... —Bulletin Of The Center For Children’s Books
Hillenbrand's… sunny palette reflects the Mediterranean flavor of an Italian town. His Giorgio is a bearded, sturdy block of a man with an infectious sparkle in his eye; he shines as a picture-book protagonist. —Publishers Weekly