My Sweet Orange Tree

Zeze is a precocious five-year-old who lives in a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. He enjoys playing tricks on others which upsets his family and results in many severe beatings. When Zeze finds a good friend, his life begins to change.

I am not sure if I ever read a children's book that made me feel such strong empathy for a character. Zeze is only five, and yet his life is full of pain and misery. He is only five, and yet he knows how to work, to make money, to make deals, to get along in life. He is only five, but he seems much older, and perhaps that is because he has had to become much more worldly.

My Sweet Orange Tree shares a life completely different from my own, though Zeze and I were both born at similar times. It is said to have been based on the author's own life, and the stories told sound very real.