Skip to main content
Displaying 1 of 1
Ode to an onion
2018
Availability
Annotations

Sad about the subject of a poem he is writing, Pablo Neruda visits his friend Matilde who shows him, through a simple onion, that happiness can be found even through tears. Includes facts about Pablo and Matilde, and Neruda's Ode to the Onion in Spanish and English. - (Baker & Taylor)

Sad about the subject of a poem he is writing, Pablo Neruda visits his friend Matilde who shows him, through a simple onion, that happiness can be found even through tears. - (Baker & Taylor)

Alexandria Giardinoand Felicita Sala’s poetic, beautifully illustrated picture book is inspired by Ode to the Onion by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904–1973).

A Junior Library Guild Selection

Pablo has a lunch date with his friend Matilde, who shows the moody poet her garden. Where Pablo sees conflict and sadness, Matilde sees love and hope.

The story is less a biography of Neruda and his muse, Matilde Urrutia (1912–1985), and more a simple ode to a vegetable that is humble and luminous, dark and light, gloomy and glad, full of grief and full of joy—just like life.

“Children who love words should warm to Alexandria Giardino’s Ode to an Onion: Pablo Neruda & His Muse . . . In Felicita Sala’s vivacious and beautifully detailed drawings, done in colored pencil, Mathilde’s smile and Pablo’s glum expression give a tender humor to this real-life relationship.” —New York Times

“Gloomy versus hopeful. Therein lies the timeless tension between Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda and his wife-to-be in this lovingly envisioned and supremely handsome book.” —San Francisco Chronicle
- (Grand Central Pub)

A poetic, beautifully illustrated picture book inspired by Ode to the Onion by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904'1973).  Pablo has a lunch date with his friend Matilde, who shows the moody poet her garden. Where Pablo sees conflict and sadness, Matilde sees love and hope. The story is less a biography of Neruda and his muse, Matilde Urrutia (1912'1985), and more a simple ode to a vegetable that is humble and luminous, dark and light, gloomy and glad, full of grief and full of joy'just like life.
A Junior Library Guild Selection
- (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)

Alexandria Giardinoand Felicita Sala’s poetic, beautifully illustrated picture book is inspired by Ode to the Onion by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904–1973).
 
A Junior Library Guild Selection
 
Pablo has a lunch date with his friend Matilde, who shows the moody poet her garden. Where Pablo sees conflict and sadness, Matilde sees love and hope.
 
The story is less a biography of Neruda and his muse, Matilde Urrutia (1912–1985), and more a simple ode to a vegetable that is humble and luminous, dark and light, gloomy and glad, full of grief and full of joy—just like life.
 
“Children who love words should warm to Alexandria Giardino’s Ode to an Onion: Pablo Neruda & His Muse . . . In Felicita Sala’s vivacious and beautifully detailed drawings, done in colored pencil, Mathilde’s smile and Pablo’s glum expression give a tender humor to this real-life relationship.” —New York Times
 
“Gloomy versus hopeful. Therein lies the timeless tension between Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda and his wife-to-be in this lovingly envisioned and supremely handsome book.” —San Francisco Chronicle
- (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)

Author Biography

Alexandria Giardino is a writer and translator. Her work includes translating My Life with Pablo Neruda by Matilde Urrutia and her essays have appeared in the Village Voice Literary Supplement, Marie Claire, Discover, American Poetry Review, and on air at KQED. Giardino lives with her family in Northern California. Ode to an Onion is her first children’s book.

Felicita Sala is the illustrator of several picture books. Sala lives in Rome with her family.

- (Grand Central Pub)

Alexandria Giardino is a writer and translator. Her work includes translating My Life with Pablo Neruda by Matilde Urrutia and her essays have appeared in the Village Voice Literary Supplement, Marie Claire, Discover, American Poetry Review, and on air at KQED. Giardino lives with her family in Northern California. Ode to an Onion is her first children's book. Felicita Sala is the illustrator of several picture books. Sala lives in Rome with her family.
 
- (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)

Alexandria Giardino is a writer and translator. Her work includes translating My Life with Pablo Neruda by Matilde Urrutia and her essays have appeared in the Village Voice Literary Supplement, Marie Claire, Discover, American Poetry Review, and on air at KQED. Giardino lives with her family in Northern California. Ode to an Onion is her first children’s book.
 
Felicita Sala is the illustrator of several picture books. Sala lives in Rome with her family.
 
 
- (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)

Large Cover Image
Trade Reviews

Booklist Reviews

So focused on writing a poem about miners toiling deep in the earth, Pablo is tardy for his luncheon with Matilde. Strolling through her fragrant garden in preparation for their meal, sensitive Pablo points out aspects of the garden that make him sad. But while he sees the fennel and tomato plants battling one another for sunlight, Matilde envisions the plants dancing. After she picks an onion, he cautions, "It will only make you cry when you slice it up." As Pablo really studies the vegetable, he marvels at the beautiful white sphere with its thin skin that came from the dark underground. Inspired, he writes an ode to the vegetable, which is printed in English and Spanish at the book's conclusion. Sala's colorful paintings reveal the dour, olive-skinned poet and the perpetually smiling red-headed musician. Many pictures and decorations in Pablo's home are items about which he wrote odes: an artichoke, scissors, vases, and ships. Onionskin endpapers are a nice touch to an introduction to the Chilean poet who paid tribute to familiar objects. Preschool-Grade 3. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Debut author Giardino envisions the inspiration behind one of Pablo Neruda's odes to familiar objects. Feeling downtrodden after writing a "long, sad poem" about the lives of miners, Neruda is uplifted by a visit to his friend Matilde's lush garden home, where "the air smelled like licorice and mud." Matilde, an exuberant redhead (Pablo's future wife), recognizes Pablo's sadness and takes him on a walk through the garden, where her passion and optimism contrast with Pablo's bleak perspective. But after picking an onion and slicing it for lunch, Pablo recognizes its beauty and complexity, something so much more than "a lowly vegetable." Sala's matte artwork features thick lines, playfully skewed angles, and motifs from Neruda's body of work appearing in his cluttered seaside study. An end note shares biographical details about "Pablo and Matilde," and Neruda's "Ode to an Onion," in Spanish and English, ends the book. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)

Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.

Librarian's View
Displaying 1 of 1