A book as unforgettable as this is difficult to find; what makes it all the more remarkable is that every word of it is true. Utterly moving and universally appealing, this book is worth its weight in diamonds.
Zeze, a precocious five-year-old born to a very poor family in the slums of Brazil, taught himself to read at that tender age and wants to grow up to be `a poet with a bow tie'. His intelligence is only matched by his penchant for mischief, and Zeze's ingenious pranks, which includes making `snakes' out of stockings to frighten adults with, will make you chuckle out loud. Beneath his naughtiness, however, is a child with a heart of gold. Zeze cares for plants and animals and the suffering of other people. He helps out his family by shining shoes, is saddened by the death of the family hen that was slaughtered for soup, shares the stuffed cruller that his pitying teacher bought him with a destitute little black girl who no one else plays with, steals flowers from rich folks' gardens for his teacher and sings in the street to help a songbook salesman sell his wares. Poverty has taught young Zeze a lot, and when he cries upon seeing that he has received nothing for Christmas and has thus hurt his father's feelings, he shines shoes for a few pennies to buy his father a box of cigarettes with. The title of the book comes from a small, sweet-orange tree growing in the garden of Zeze's home. Feeling left out by his numerous brothers and sisters, the imaginative Zeze adopts the tree as a playmate. The plot grows when Zeze befriends the town millionaire, Portuga, and soon the two are inseparable. A tragedy occurs, and we follow the sorrowful and moving way Zeze deals with it. For the record, no book has ever made me cry so much.
That this book is no longer in print is also a great tragedy. I strongly recommend searching secondhand bookshops and flea markets to see if anyone is foolish enough to give this gem away. His/her loss is your gain.