Mentioned in Megan Dowd Lambert's Whole Book Approach webinar

The story of how Chilean poet Pablo Neruda came to write his "Ode to an Onion" ("Oda a la Cebolla") with the help of folk singer Matilde Urrutia.

Back matter includes "About Pablo & Matilde," and the poem in English and in Spanish. A piece of "onionskin" vellum precedes the title page and the final page. ( )

This is a lovely, special book. I loved everything about it.

The illustrations are wonderful! I loved the artistic style for the depiction of people and other living things and inanimate objects and decorative touches. Spectacular use of color too! The pictures are gorgeous and their details are fun to view.

I loved how the end papers front and back were textured to be like onion skin. Brilliant detail!

I love Pablo Neruda’s poems and really like his Ode to the Onion poem. The poem is included at the end, first translated to English and then in the original Spanish.

I liked reading about Pablo and Matilde at the end as well as within the story’s pages. The information at the end is not much more than a blurb with a photograph but it described so much about his life and their partnership. I like them as people.

I appreciated the story for encouraging looking more deeply at everyday things and for pointing out that where there is sadness there is also happiness.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy reading about poets, Pablo Neruda, Matilde Urrutia, like reading poetry, and have an appreciation for art in picture books. It’s also a perfect book for using its contents to discuss emotions & feelings. ( )

This book is one of my favorites when it comes to illustrations, the images are textured and the colors are simple but beautifully crafted. This book is about Pablo Neruda, a famous poet, who is stressed when put to the task of writing a poem. He decides to visit his friend and as they prepare to make dinner he pick onions and describes how sad it is to take them from their homes in the ground, cutting them up, and how they make people cry. His friend (Matilde) on the other hand sees the beauty in it and inspires him to write his famous poem Ode to an Onion. This book depicts a fictional view of how Pablo came up for his world famous poems of daily objects. I would highly recommend this book as a way to introduce him to young readers. ( )