Toro! Toro!
Grade 5-8-A grandfather tells his grandson about the horrors of war in this story set during the Spanish Civil War. As a youngster, Antonito lived on a small farm outside the village of Sauceda. His father raised strong black bulls for the bullring, or corrida. The boy bonded with a newborn calf after its mother died, and in order to save it, he led Paco into the surrounding hills. While they were away, Franco's soldiers bombed the village. Leaving Paco behind, Antonito returned home, discovering the farm in flames. He escaped back into the safety of the countryside, but couldn't find the calf. Weeks later, suffering from hunger and exhaustion, he was found by his Uncle Juan, a Republican soldier, and nursed back to health. While recuperating, he heard a tale of a large black bull that chased down Nationalist soldiers, and he hoped that it was Paco. Years later, after he dreamed that the creature rested next to him while he slept in the forest, he awakened to discover hoof marks of a massive bull in the still-warm grass. Morpurgo's action-filled novel packs an emotional punch. The author gradually reveals the historical information and narrates the tale with the careful detachment of someone relating a story so awful that he can hardly bear to tell it. Ideal for reluctant readers, this book focuses on the loss and grief that grows out of times of war.Shawn Brommer, South Central Library System, Madison, WICopyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.