My Wonderful Orange Tree, The Zizah Trilogy, Part 1

Author: José Mauro de Vasco

Translated by: Enas Al-Abbasi

Who is this child that everyone calls the little devil and describes as a gutter cat? And what kind of child carries a singing bird in his heart?

" My Wonderful Orange Tree" by José Mauro de Vasconcelos is a work studied in Brazilian schools and teachers at French institutes advise their students to read... It is a touching and humane work told by a child poet who is no more than five years old... It doesn't just tell a fairy tale or the dreams of children in Brazil, but also the author's own adventures as a child, the adventures of a child who learned to read at the age of four without a teacher, a child who carries a bird in his heart and a demon in his head whispering thoughts that get him into trouble with adults... This is a sweet novel as sweet as the sap of a sweet orange... A humane novel that describes the innocence that a child's heart can carry, and introduces us to the poet's innate soul... The story of a child who carries the blood of Brazil's indigenous people, a child who steals a flower every morning from a wealthy man's garden for his teacher... And he wonders with utmost innocence: Didn't God give flowers to all people?