Toro! Toro! - Hardcover

Morpurgo, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007105517 ISBN 13: 9780007105519

Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks, 2001

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

“In Toro! Toro! Michael Morpurgo unpicks the problem of taking sides, of how enemies can be good, of guilty secrets kept for years... A compact, horrifying and compelling story”
The Times

“A beautifully, directly and convincingly told story: typical Morpurgo. Michael Foreman’s illustrations are exactly right and the whole is a very fine, thoroughly recommended, production.”
School Librarian

From the Back Cover:

'I didn't tell Paco what I'd seen that day – I didn't ever want him to know. 'It'll be soon,' I told him. I'll take you away so you can live wild up in the hills, where you'll be safe forever and ever. I'll work something out, I promise you."'

Antonito lives an idyllic life on his parent's bull farm in Andalucia, Spain. But the idyll is shattered when he realises that his beloved bull calf, Paco, is destined for the bloody struggle of the bullring. What can he do? He has a plan – a plan of such daring, it will take enormous courage to see it through.

But it is 1936, and the rolling drums of war are echoing across the Spanish plains. Little does Antonito realise the full consequences of his actions – and Paco has a destiny far exceeding Antonito's dreams.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0007105517
• ISBN 13: 9780007105519
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128
• Illustrator: Foreman Michael