Ode To An Onion: Pablo Neruda + His Muse by Alexandria Giardino

Alexandria Giardino and Felicita Sala's poetic, beautifully illustrated picture book is 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.

"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."