My Sweet-Orange Tree
by José Mauro de Vasconcelos
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Fifty years after its first publication, the multimillion-copy international bestseller is available again in English, sharing the heartbreaking tale of a gifted, mischievous, direly misunderstood boy growing up in Rio de Janeiro.When Zezé grows up, he wants to be a poet in a bow tie. For now the precocious young boy entertains himself by playing clever pranks on the residents of his Rio de Janeiro neighborhood, stunts for which his parents and siblings punish him severely. Lately, with show more his father out of work, the beatings have become harsher. Zezé's only solace comes from his time at school, his hours secretly spent singing with a street musician, and the refuge he finds with his precious magical orange tree. When Zezé finally makes a real friend, his life begins to change, opening him up to human tenderness but also wrenching sorrow. Never out of print in Brazil since it was first published in 1968, My Sweet Orange Tree, inspired by the author's own childhood, has been translated into many languages and has won the hearts of millions of young readers across the globe.
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Young Zeze doesn't know why the devil gets in him sometimes, but this little five-year-old is often beat upon by his out-work-father and his older siblings. The family is forced to move when they can no longer pay their rent, and at the new home is a sweet orange tree that Zeze names Pinkie that talks to him.
This classic Brazilian children's tale does a stellar job of capturing the peculiar perspective of a precocious, imaginative child. Zeze does get into a lot of trouble, and indeed doesn't want to live anymore at some points, but he is also very lovable, loving, and observant of everything around him. A unique coming of age tale that will stick with me in all its melancholy.
This classic Brazilian children's tale does a stellar job of capturing the peculiar perspective of a precocious, imaginative child. Zeze does get into a lot of trouble, and indeed doesn't want to live anymore at some points, but he is also very lovable, loving, and observant of everything around him. A unique coming of age tale that will stick with me in all its melancholy.
Rating: 5* of five
The Publisher Says: A WORLDWIDE CLASSIC OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: a moving, life-affirming story of a mischevious boy from Brazil and the power of kindness and imagination.
Meet Zezé—Brazil's naughtiest and most loveable boy, his talent for mischief matched only by his great kindness.
When he grows up he wants to be a poet with a bow-tie, but for now, he entertains himself playing pranks on the residents of his family's poor Rio de Janeiro neighborhood and inventing friends to play with. Zezé’s pranks can be a little too mischievous – at least, so say his parents, who punish him harshly when he misbehaves. His father is out of work and the family unhappiness falls hardest on Zezé, the second-youngest of seven show more siblings. That is, until he meets a real friend, and his life begins to change. With the help of Pinkie, the talking orange tree, Manuel, who gives Zezé rides in his car, and with his own endless supply of resourcefulness and imagination, Zezé will triumph over any adversity.
This worldwide classic of children's literature has never been out of print in Brazil since it was first published in 1968. Translated into an astonishing number of languages, it has won the hearts of millions of young readers from Korea to Turkey, Poland to Thailand, and many other countries too, with its inimitable blend of the heart-rending and the whimsical.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Pinkie the orange tree stole my heart.
Magic...a message that, all by itself, makes me want to give this book to every eight-year-old on the planet. The sweetness, the charm...the truth-telling about trees and their ability to communicate that he could not have known when he wrote the book in the 1960s. (It came out in Brazil in 1968.)
As a lonely, neglected child in the 1920s, the author needed more than he found in his family. He was like Zezé, and it shows...the siblings almost old enough to be parents, the parents mostly gone...these resonate with millions of us. Zezé seeks out any- and everything as he quests for the human necessity of connection, communication, and affection.
There is the period-appropriate distant, minatory father, full of his own rage and not looking at Zezé as a person to be formed but a mouth to be fed. The happiness Zezé seeks won't come from the angry, punishing papa, or the moveable street singer, or even his immobile friend Pinkie the sweet-orange tree...but being an energetic, curious, bright child, he does find the role model/friend he seeks in Manuel.
It would raise eyebrows into hairlines today for an adult man to bond with. I get vey sad thinking about this because the result of our culture's deeply sick relationship to sex and sexuality makes most parents very suspicious...hostile...to adults interacting with their kids. No wonder society is so very fragmented and solitary, so unsympathetic...we beat the sunny curiosity and openness to love out of our Zezés.
Rant over. I'd like to leave you with a beautiful sentiment to clean outthe anger of 2025. Take this away with you, and gift it to that middle-grade child who seems lost but has little to do.
The Publisher Says: A WORLDWIDE CLASSIC OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: a moving, life-affirming story of a mischevious boy from Brazil and the power of kindness and imagination.
Meet Zezé—Brazil's naughtiest and most loveable boy, his talent for mischief matched only by his great kindness.
When he grows up he wants to be a poet with a bow-tie, but for now, he entertains himself playing pranks on the residents of his family's poor Rio de Janeiro neighborhood and inventing friends to play with. Zezé’s pranks can be a little too mischievous – at least, so say his parents, who punish him harshly when he misbehaves. His father is out of work and the family unhappiness falls hardest on Zezé, the second-youngest of seven show more siblings. That is, until he meets a real friend, and his life begins to change. With the help of Pinkie, the talking orange tree, Manuel, who gives Zezé rides in his car, and with his own endless supply of resourcefulness and imagination, Zezé will triumph over any adversity.
This worldwide classic of children's literature has never been out of print in Brazil since it was first published in 1968. Translated into an astonishing number of languages, it has won the hearts of millions of young readers from Korea to Turkey, Poland to Thailand, and many other countries too, with its inimitable blend of the heart-rending and the whimsical.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Pinkie the orange tree stole my heart.
With a start, I scrambled up and stared at the little tree. It was strange because I always talked to everything, but I thought it was the little bird inside me that made everything talk back.
‘But can you really talk?
‘Can’t you hear me?’
And it gave a little chuckle. I almost screamed and ran away. But curiosity kept me there.
‘How do you talk?’
‘Trees talk with everything. With their leaves, their branches, their roots. Want to see? Place your ear here on my trunk and you’ll hear my heartbeat.’
I hesitated a moment, but seeing its size, my fear dissipated. I pressed my ear to its trunk and heard a faraway tick… tick…
Magic...a message that, all by itself, makes me want to give this book to every eight-year-old on the planet. The sweetness, the charm...the truth-telling about trees and their ability to communicate that he could not have known when he wrote the book in the 1960s. (It came out in Brazil in 1968.)
As a lonely, neglected child in the 1920s, the author needed more than he found in his family. He was like Zezé, and it shows...the siblings almost old enough to be parents, the parents mostly gone...these resonate with millions of us. Zezé seeks out any- and everything as he quests for the human necessity of connection, communication, and affection.
There is the period-appropriate distant, minatory father, full of his own rage and not looking at Zezé as a person to be formed but a mouth to be fed. The happiness Zezé seeks won't come from the angry, punishing papa, or the moveable street singer, or even his immobile friend Pinkie the sweet-orange tree...but being an energetic, curious, bright child, he does find the role model/friend he seeks in Manuel.
It would raise eyebrows into hairlines today for an adult man to bond with. I get vey sad thinking about this because the result of our culture's deeply sick relationship to sex and sexuality makes most parents very suspicious...hostile...to adults interacting with their kids. No wonder society is so very fragmented and solitary, so unsympathetic...we beat the sunny curiosity and openness to love out of our Zezés.
Rant over. I'd like to leave you with a beautiful sentiment to clean outthe anger of 2025. Take this away with you, and gift it to that middle-grade child who seems lost but has little to do.
Gran had once said that happiness is a ‘sun shining in your heart’. And that the sun lit up everything with happiness. If it was true, the sun in my heart made everything beautiful.show less
Zezé de Vasconcelos is a precocious, mischievous five-year-old boy growing up in Bangu, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. His father has been laid off, so his family is sinking into poverty and consumed with worries. No one has the time or patience to put up with Zezé's pranks, so he is spanked whenever anything goes awry, including when he learns to read, for it must be a lie as what five-year-old teaches themselves to read? Despite his situation, Zezé is highly imaginative and loving, becoming intimate friends with bats, trees, and making up games to entertain his younger brother.
In part to get him out of their hair, the family lies and tells the school Zezé is six so that he can go to school. There he instantly becomes the best show more student and is doted on by his teacher, herself a bit of an outcast. But Zezé's big break comes when he becomes friends with Portuga, the rich Portuguese man who drives a fancy car. For the first time, Zezé truly feels loved and nurtured. He begins to think that perhaps he is not as bad as everyone makes him out to be.
This is a wonderful, bittersweet story about growing up in Brazil in the 1920s. It is part of a tetralogy loosely based on the author's life. This book would become Vasconcelos's most famous work and was taught in elementary schools in Brazil and made into several movies. I loved the delightful antics of little Zezé and was moved by his relationship with Portuga. Unfortunately, none of Vasconcelos's other books appear to have been translated into English, as I would have enjoyed following Zezé into adolescence. show less
In part to get him out of their hair, the family lies and tells the school Zezé is six so that he can go to school. There he instantly becomes the best show more student and is doted on by his teacher, herself a bit of an outcast. But Zezé's big break comes when he becomes friends with Portuga, the rich Portuguese man who drives a fancy car. For the first time, Zezé truly feels loved and nurtured. He begins to think that perhaps he is not as bad as everyone makes him out to be.
This is a wonderful, bittersweet story about growing up in Brazil in the 1920s. It is part of a tetralogy loosely based on the author's life. This book would become Vasconcelos's most famous work and was taught in elementary schools in Brazil and made into several movies. I loved the delightful antics of little Zezé and was moved by his relationship with Portuga. Unfortunately, none of Vasconcelos's other books appear to have been translated into English, as I would have enjoyed following Zezé into adolescence. show less
Zezé is a five-year-old boy living amidst poverty and in an abusive home. The adults in his life have convinced him that he's an evil child and doesn't get presents for Christmas because he isn't worthy of them in the eyes of Jesus. In truth, he's an incredibly intelligent child, creative and intuitive, and he longs for affection in a way that will break every reader's heart. His strength throughout all the hardships he faces keeps you rooting for him, but also makes the inevitable trauma that breaks his spirit that much more of a gut-punch. This is a bleak read, but it also has its beautiful moments and if you brave the bleakness, you'll be rewarded with getting to fall in love with Zezé's sweet but mischievous little soul.
My Sweet Orange Tree is a story about a young, five (no, six; no, five) year old, smart and mischievous boy growing up in poverty in Bangu, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Because everyone is busy trying to support the family, Zeze is usually left by himself and thus pulls pranks on his neighbors. The deeds usually make his parents and older siblings so angry that they physically discipline him for what he's done. Now that his father is out of work, the beatings have become harsher and Zeze struggles to find the brighter side of life. After he's taught himself to read, Zeze is enrolled in school a year early and begins to thrive. He also begins singing with a Bahian street musician on Tuesdays and finds time for refuge with his magical orange show more tree, Sweetie. Finally, Zeze meets a real friend and his life begins to shine brighter - opening him up to both human tenderness and sorrow.
I've had this book on my TBR shelf for a while now and only really knew it was a popular, translated book from Brazil. But, I also knew it would be a book I could read in almost one setting and that I would most likely enjoy it. I was right, and I'm glad I picked it up when I did.
The voice of Zeze captured my attention almost immediately - what a smarty pants little boy! The way he saw the world put a smile on my face, but it also broke my heart a little bit as well. He was so smart for his age that I would forget how young he was until he would give a viewpoint that only a child could give. And every time he would get a beating for being naughty, it broke my heart. Also, for such a young child to think he had the devil born inside of him made me so sad.
I will admit, I was a little worried about Zeze and his new friend at first, but once the friendship formed, I couldn't get enough of them. I wanted Zeze to have the best life possible without any more sorrow or disappointment.
I wasn't aware of the popularity of this book until after I read it and was writing my review. It's never been out of print in Brazil since it was first published in 1968 and has been translated into many languages around the world. I highly suggest grabbing a copy of this book and falling in love with the little boy named Zeze. You might very well shed a few tears, but in the end, Zeze and the story will stick with you well after the pages of the book have been shut. show less
I've had this book on my TBR shelf for a while now and only really knew it was a popular, translated book from Brazil. But, I also knew it would be a book I could read in almost one setting and that I would most likely enjoy it. I was right, and I'm glad I picked it up when I did.
The voice of Zeze captured my attention almost immediately - what a smarty pants little boy! The way he saw the world put a smile on my face, but it also broke my heart a little bit as well. He was so smart for his age that I would forget how young he was until he would give a viewpoint that only a child could give. And every time he would get a beating for being naughty, it broke my heart. Also, for such a young child to think he had the devil born inside of him made me so sad.
I will admit, I was a little worried about Zeze and his new friend at first, but once the friendship formed, I couldn't get enough of them. I wanted Zeze to have the best life possible without any more sorrow or disappointment.
I wasn't aware of the popularity of this book until after I read it and was writing my review. It's never been out of print in Brazil since it was first published in 1968 and has been translated into many languages around the world. I highly suggest grabbing a copy of this book and falling in love with the little boy named Zeze. You might very well shed a few tears, but in the end, Zeze and the story will stick with you well after the pages of the book have been shut. show less
This is the first “real” book I remember reading – I also remember crying while I read it. I actually gasped when I came across this title while browsing here on goodreads. Zeze, the five-year-old street wise shoe shiner and his imaginary friend – the orange tree – are as part of me as Harry Potter will one day be part of my children. Zeze though is not fighting with the forces of evil in an imaginary world. His struggles are those of poverty and loneliness, so real to this day yet to children in Brazil and everywhere. Oliver Twist is probably a better comparison than Harry Potter.
This book is out of print in English, and it is such a pity, because it is timeless. And because my own children do not read Portuguese.
This book is out of print in English, and it is such a pity, because it is timeless. And because my own children do not read Portuguese.
Adorei este livro.
Ri e viajei pela imaginação de Zezé, mas principalmente emocionei-me com o retrato de uma infancia precocemente perdida.
Quando no Natal Zezé não recebe presentes e revoltado com isso desabafa com o irmão e o pai deles ouve, e depois a ideia que Zezé teve de ir trabalhar para comprar um presente para o pai emocionou-me até me virem as lágrimas aos olhos.
Mas quando no fim do livro o Portuga morre, ai chorei até quase não conseguir ler...
Há muito tempo que não lia uma história tão bem contada, que me tocasse tanto.
Ri e viajei pela imaginação de Zezé, mas principalmente emocionei-me com o retrato de uma infancia precocemente perdida.
Quando no Natal Zezé não recebe presentes e revoltado com isso desabafa com o irmão e o pai deles ouve, e depois a ideia que Zezé teve de ir trabalhar para comprar um presente para o pai emocionou-me até me virem as lágrimas aos olhos.
Mas quando no fim do livro o Portuga morre, ai chorei até quase não conseguir ler...
Há muito tempo que não lia uma história tão bem contada, que me tocasse tanto.
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Author Information
67 Works 1,848 Members
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- My Sweet-Orange Tree
- Original title
- O meu pé de laranja lima
- Original publication date
- 1968
- People/Characters
- Zezé; Manuel Valadares; Minguito; Totoca; Gloria; Luis
- Important places
- Bangú, Brazil
- Epigraph
- Historia de un niño que un día descubrió el dolor...
- Dedication
- Para los vivos: Ciccilo Matarazzo, Mercedes Cruañes Rinaldi, Erich Gemeinder, Francisco Marins y Arnaldo Magalhaes de Giacomo y también Helene Rudge Miller (Piu-Piu!) sin poder olvidar tampoco a mi "hijo" Fernando Seplinsky... (show all).
A los muertos: El homenaje de mi nostalgia a mi hermano Luis, el Rey Luis, y a mi hermana Gloria; Luis renunció a vivir a los veinte años y Gloria a los veinticuatro también pensó que realmente vivir no valía la pena. Igual nostalgia para Manuel Valadares, que mostró a mis seis años el significado de la ternura...
¡Que todos descansen en paz!...
y ahora Dorival Lourenço da Silva (¡Dodó, ni la tristeza ni la nostalgia matan!...) - First words
- We came down the street hand in hand without hurrying.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"¿POR QUE LES CUENTAN COSAS A LAS CRIATURITAS?"
Y la verdas es, mi querido Portuga, que a mi me contaron las cosas demasiado pronto.
¡Adiós!
Ubatuba, 1967 - Original language
- Portuguese
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Children's Books
- DDC/MDS
- 863.6 — Literature & rhetoric Spanish, Portuguese, Galician literatures Spanish fiction 20th Century
- LCC
- PQ9697 .V283 .M4 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures Portuguese literature Provincial, local, colonial, etc. Brazil
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 1,245
- Popularity
- 19,647
- Reviews
- 53
- Rating
- (4.35)
- Languages
- 16 — Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, English, French, German, Galician, Greek, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmål), Farsi/Persian, Polish, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Portuguese (Brazil)
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 71
- ASINs
- 17