Toro! Toro!

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Best-selling author Michael Morpurgo turns his storytelling skills to the drama and tragedy of the Spanish Civil War, illustrated by Michael Foreman.

TORO,TORO is the story of a young boy growing up in Andalucia, Spain, on a farm rearing bulls for the bull ring. Antonito hand rears a little black calf and they become firm friends, but the boy doesn't yet understand the fate of the black bulls - the corrida and death. Later, when he learns of the horrors of the bull fight, he frees Paco, the black bull, and rides with him into the hills.There they witness the bombing of their village (it's the year 1936, and the Spanish Civil War has started) and Antonito cannot go back - his family and the farm are destroyed, and Paco has run off, wild with fright. He decides to stay in the hills, where he meets up with the Resistance fighters. During the War, Antonito hears stories round the campfire of the wonderful black bull, who becomes a symbol of freedom for them all. Could this really be Paco? But no-one has ever seen him. After the war, when Antonito is working as a muleteer in the mountains, he falls asleep and dreams of Paco. In the morning, he wakes to see hoof prints on the ground beside him...

A delightful story, full of nostalgia and drama in the author's own inimitable style. Illustrated by Michael Foreman.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 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, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 4-6.nowing his grandson is upset after a minor incident, Antonito, an understanding grandfather, tells a story from his own childhood during the Spanish Civil War. The story begins when the grandfather witnesses the birth of a bull on his father's farm in Andalucia. Young Antonito and the bull calf form a special bond, but Antonito is shocked to discover that the bull is destined to die in the ring. In a bid to save his pet, Antonito releases his father's bulls. Only hours after this impetuous act, however, Franco's planes bomb Antonito's farm. Antonito escapes the advancing troops by running to the hills, barely managing to survive until he is rescued by a band of nationalist guerrillas, led by his uncle. Antonito narrates the epic, detailed events in an understated voice, but the sense of regret and loss resonate from nearly every page. Small gray-toned drawings illustrate this simply told yet powerful account of war's tragic toll. --Todd Morning Copyright 2004 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A young child sees violence done in the bull ring, and worse violence to his small town, in this powerful, simply written tale by Britain's Children's Laureate, set during the Spanish Civil War. Horrified to learn that the corrida involves not just a dance, but a death, six-year-old Antonito returns to his father's farm outside the village of Saucedo, determined to save his beloved bull Paco from such a bloody fate. But by sneaking out to free Paco and the rest of his father's herd early one morning, he becomes a witness as Saucedo is bombed, and the survivors massacred, by Franco's forces. Foreman ably captures Antonito's innocence, devastation, and slow recovery in black-and-white vignettes; Morpurgo likewise delineates the close relationship between boy and bull, and the shock of being swept up in war, in ways that will resonate with younger readers. Compelling. (Fiction. 9-11) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.