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Gr 4-9 Readers enter the creative, sensitive mind of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet, in this beautifully written fictional biography. Ryan artfully meshes factual details with an absorbing story of a shy Chilean boy whose spirit develops and thrives despite his father's relentless negativity. Neruda, who was born Neftali Reyes, sees, hears, and feels poetry all around him from an early age. Luckily he finds understanding and encouragement from his stepmother and his uncle, whose humanitarian and liberal attitudes toward nature and the rights of...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

As Neftalí Reyes enters university, his wrathful father forbids wasting time on his useless "hobby": writing. So he fashions a pseudonym: "Pablo" from Paolo, in an Italian poem; "Neruda" after a Czech writer. The name fits like a suit: "The lapels were the width that he liked. The color was soft enough not to offend, but bright enough to be remembered. The name was not only a perfect solution, it was a perfect fit." Perfect indeed, like the union that resulted in this novel: the subject, poet Pablo Neruda (1904–73), the Chilean Nobel Prize winner; Ryan, the author who re-creates Neruda's spirit and sensibility; and Sís, the Czech-born illustrator whose escape from oppression (see The Wall, rev. 9/07) so hauntingly resembles Neruda's struggle for creative freedom. In Ryan's perceptive reconstruction of the poet's early years, Neftalí, at eight, is already at loggerheads with an autocratic father who prohibits all creative activities, even reading. Fortunately the boy is unquenchable—a lover of words, books, and ideas; a collector of the small, lovely objects that wi...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Perfect is the union that resulted in this novel: the subject, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904–73); author Ryan who re-creates Neruda's spirit and sensi...Log In or Sign Up to Read More