The Caiman (Manrique/Paris)

The Caiman , Maria Eugneia Manrique (2019)
Illustrated by Ramon Paris
Translated by Amy Brill

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was one of the free books I downloaded on Amazon's World Book Day. It was a delightfully illustrated children's book about a caiman, which is a black alligator, named Negro, who was kept as a house pet. It's a children's book, so nothing horrific happens. In fact, it's quite sweet.

According to the notes, this is a true story that happened many years ago in San Fernando de Apure. A little girl named Julia found a baby alligator and was about to put it back in the river when the town watchmaker, Faoro, came along and adopted it.

The caiman was very friendly and gave children rides (including, according to the notes, the author), and slept in the bed with Faoro at night, even as he got bigger.

Faoro marries his neighbor Angela, but only after making sure that she and the caiman were okay with each other. Both Angela and the caiman are sad when Faoro passes away.

I classified this as fiction and nonfiction because it's a fictionalized account of a true story, and I'm too lazy to come up with a different label.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bedeviled Eggs (Childs)

Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Doidge)

Cibola Burn (Corey)