The book is set in the immediate post-war Sardinia (Italy) between 1949 and 1950. Prisca Puntoni, Elisa Maffei, and Rosalba Cardano are 9-year-old girls, and very close friends who are part of the same all-girls class. When the school year starts, they meet Mrs. Argia Sforza, a new teacher who is a cruel and classist woman, especially against Iolanda Repovik and Adelaide Guzzòn, two extremely poor girls who grew up in a bad home environment. Prisca and her friends decide to start their own war against Mrs. Sforza and defend their poor classmates.
It's the first book of the Lossai Saga, followed by Diana cupido e il commendatore, Re mida ha le orecchie d'asino, and La voce segreta, other books with the same setting but other protagonists. It also has a prequel, Quando Eravamo Piccole (When We Were Children) about the early childhood of Prisca and Elisa.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents:
- Adelaide's parents and Iolanda's parents are physically abusive, since they are negative examples of Lower-Class Lout.
- Apparently, the rebellious Prisca is beaten up by her mother whenever she misbehaves, even though Prisca comes from a well-off family.
- Adults Are Useless: Prisca and her friends, who are little girls, are the only people who try to stop the Sadist Teacher who is abusing her students. Prisca tries to inform her father (a lawyer) but he doesn't care. She later tries to send a letter to the principal but he doesn't care. Elisa tries to inform her family, but they don't care, not even when the teacher beats up Elisa herself. The only adult who tries to talk to the principal about the Mrs. Sforza situation is Elisa's uncle Baldassarre, but the principal doesn't listen to him, because the parents of the other children don't want Mrs. Sforza to go away.
- Aerith and Bob: The three heroines. Prisca is a very unusual, almost unheard name (although it does exist). Elisa is a modern Italian name still used nowadays. Rosalba is in-between, as it was common in Italy at the times of the book's setting (1940-50), but it's old-fashioned now.
- Alpha Bitch: Sveva, the richest, most privileged girl in the class and the Teacher's Pet, is very cruel. Especially to Adelaide and Iolanda.
- Butt-Monkey: The two poor girls Adelaide and Iolanda are repeatedly abused and humiliated by Mrs. Sforza just for existing, no matter how much they try to be like the other students.
- Corporal Punishment: Mrs. Sforza punishes her least favorite students by hitting their hands with a ruler. When she decides that Iolanda and Adelaide deserve worse than that, she starts slapping them or beating them with a stick.
- Freudian Trio: Prisca is the most impulsive (Id). Elisa is the most cautious (Superego), until she starts rebelling. Rosalba is the mediator (Ego).
- Grade Skipper: The protagonists are 9 years old. The entire class, which is one of the best in their elementary school, has the possibility to take an exam at the end of the year, so they can skip a grade and start middle school one year before. Only a few students in the class reject this proposal of Mrs. Sforza.
- Hate Sink:
- Mrs. Sforza is a classist bigot Sadist Teacher who is described as loathsome in every way.
- The same can be said for the "brown-nosers" of the class, a group of ignorant, opportunistic, and snobbish Upper Class Twits who are Mrs. Sforza's favorite students. Especially Sveva, who is the meanest and the one who is mentioned the most.
- Held Back in School: Adelaide and Iolanda are one year older than the rest of the class, because they were held back the previous year. Ironically though, they are still shorter than all their classmates.
- Hot-Blooded: Prisca. The title "Listen to my Heart" is a sentence that Prisca tells to her friend Elisa, because Prisca's heart beats too fast when she is angry, which regularly happens with Mrs. Sforza.
- Ironic Name: Adelaide's name means "nobility". The Adelaide of this story is an underprivileged girl who lives in Perpetual Poverty.
- Karma Houdini: The teacher Mrs. Sforza gets away with literally everything (abusing Adelaide and Iolanda, and eventually beating up Elisa) thanks to the other adults being useless. She is even rewarded at the end, because she is the one who prepared the students for the final exam, allowing them to skip a grade.
- Little Miss Badass: Prisca, Elisa, and Rosalba are smart, brave, and heroic little girls, doing everything possible to stop the abuse of a Sadist Teacher. And they don't do that for themselves (they are rich, so Mrs. Sforza likes them), but to defend two classmates. While all their efforts are useless, at least they try their best.
- Ms. Imagination: Prisca has a very wild imagination, even macabre at times, and she likes to write bizarre (and grammatically perfect) stories. She is only nine.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
- Adelaide gets a beating by her own mother in front of the entire class.
- Eventually, Elisa gets brutally beaten up by Mrs. Sforza. That was what Elisa wanted, as she did eveything to push her teacher's limits to get a violent reaction, because she wanted her family to intervene against the teacher… which doesn't happen anyway.
- Non-Indicative Name: The all-girls class is divided in three desk rows: "tomboys", "brown-nosers", and "wimps". Some of the girls don't fit the definition of their row:
- The girls sitting in the "tomboys" row got this nickname because some of them are really loud and noisy, including Prisca, but her deskmate Elisa is not really a tomboy (though she shows a rebellious streak).
- Rosalba's desk is part of the "wimps" row, but Rosalba herself is anything but wimpy, although most girls in that row are usually neutral and submissive. The most infamous "wimps" Iolanda and Adelaide are not really wimps either, as they both prove to have a lot of perseverance and determination in a terrible situation.
- Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending: The three protagonists Prisca, Elisa, and Rosalba get a happy ending. The same can't be said for the poor Iolanda and Adelaide, who end up being unfairly kicked out of the school, and are forced to go to work at their young age.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Mrs. Sforza is guilty of shameless class discrimination. She uses the most offensive words against Iolanda and Adelaide, like calling them "filthy beggars" in front of their classmates.
- Precision F-Strike: The usually well-behaved Elisa boldly and disrepectfully shouts "shit" in front of the class, as part of her plan to make Mrs. Sforza angry at her (something that Mrs. Sforza really doesn't want to be, due to Elisa's upper class family).
- Precocious Crush: Prisca is in love with Elisa's uncle Leopoldo. She later develops another crush on her adult math tutor Ondina, which makes Prisca Ambiguously Bi. Ironically, Leopoldo and Ondina end up together, and Prisca is happy for them.
- Preppy Name:
- Sveva Lopez del Rio, the Rich Bitch of Spanish origins.
- Elisa's upper class grandmother has an Overly Long Name. She is a Rich Bitch too.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: The "brown-nosers" of the class are this to Mrs. Sforza. Mrs. Sforza herself is this to anyone who belongs to upper class families, both students and adults.
- Sadist Teacher: Mrs. Sforza is a very cruel example. She acts like a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing with rich students, but is openly abusive (both physically and verbally) with poor students.
- Spoiled Sweet: Rosalba and Elisa are rich girls who are generous and willing to help two lower-class girls in their class. Even Prisca, the daughter of a lawyer, can qualify despite being something of a brat, but she is as compassionate as Elisa and Rosalba.
- Teacher's Pet: Mrs. Sforza clearly favors the rich "brown-nosers" of the class, especially Sveva, the richest of them all. The fact that Sveva is extremely lazy and Book Dumb doesn't bother Mrs. Sforza, who often gives her higher grades than what she deserves.
- Teacher's Unfavorite Student: Iolanda and Adelaide are treated horribly by Mrs. Sforza, because the two girls come from a broken home and live in Perpetual Poverty. She uses them as The Scapegoat for everything bad that happens in class, while avoiding to punish her favorites when they do something bad.
- Token Good Teammate: Most of the "brown-nosers" are snobbish mean girls, except Emilia who is a Kindhearted Simpleton.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Prisca is a very smart student, as are her friends Elisa and Rosalba. They are also more mature than almost all the adults in the story.
