My Pig Amarillo - Hardcover

Ichikawa, Satomi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399237682 ISBN 13: 9780399237683

Publisher: Philomel Books, 2003

Synopsis

Amarillo is Pablito's best friend. They do everything together-run, hide from each other, jump in the mud. They are inseparable, just like many best friends. But Amarillo is a bit different-he is a little yellow pig.

When Pablito comes home from school one day and Amarillo isn't there, Pablito is devastated. Where could he be? Pablito can't eat; he can't sleep.  His heart feels as if it will break wide open. But Grandfather has an idea, a way for Pablito to send a message to Amarillo, and help him say goodbye to his best friend.

My Pig Amarillo is a beautiful story for children of all ages, full of friendship and love and learning to let go.

About this title

About the Author

Satomi Ichikawa, creator of the Nora books, lives in Paris, France.
Satomi Ichikawa, creator of the Nora books, lives in Paris, France.

From Booklist

PreS-Gr. 1. There are many books about children losing a pet, but this one about a boy and his pig has both a softness and brightness that transcends other, more traditional, stories. Youngsters will feel the affection between Pablito, a Guatemalan boy, and his pig, Amarillo, just from looking at the book cover, which pictures the porker draped over his boy like a child on his father's shoulders. Pablito received the pig as a gift from his grandfather when it was a tiny baby, yellow in color (hence the name Amarillo). The pig and the boy become fast friends, as a series of vignettes shows. But one day, Amarillo is not in its hut. The boy is distraught, crying into his pillow, "I am waiting for you to come back, but you don't." Nothing comforts Pablito, not even the wooden pig Grandfather carves, until All Saint's Day. By now it is clear that Amarillo will not return, but Grandfather says they can send a message with a kite on the holiday. Pablito works hard on his kite, sending it into the sky at the cemetery. Then over a mountain appears an enormous cloud. It's in the shape of a pig, and to Pablito, it seems Amarillo is smiling down at him. Ichikawa uses her Guatemalan setting very effectively, but she also wraps the story in universal emotions: love, longing, grief, hope. The pen-and-watercolor artwork brings children close to all facets of Pablito's story. On one level, the ending is utterly realistic: Amarillo is gone. But the miracle of comfort is there, too, smiling down in the face of a pig. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Philomel Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0399237682
• ISBN 13: 9780399237683
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Ichikawa Satomi