"PAPELUCHO"
PRESENTATION
"Papelucho" is a book — or rather a series of twelve books — that amuses and entertains young and old, large and small. It has become a classic among books for children in Chile and it is about to become a classic in other countries too.
Written by Ester Huneeus, a Chilean author, under the pseudonym Marcela Paz, it presents itself as the diary of a middle class, 8-year old Chilean boy in Santiago. This makes it different from many other children's books, which are set in unreal surroundings. Papelucho is able to find interest and humour in everyday life, and does this by means of an exhuberant phantasy, a strong sense of observation and ridicule, and highly developed originality and creativity. In this respect it shows similarity with other widely read works of the European children's literature, which also depict the adventures of children's everyday life, such as Goscinny y Sempé's "Le petit Nicolas", Richmal Crompton's "William" series, and Elena Fortún's "Celia" books in Spanish.
In Chile, Papelucho has had a brilliant history. The first book was published in 1947, after it won an award in a contest of a young Chilean publishing house, Rapa Nui, which was prepared to take the risk of publishing this pioneering work. The excellent illustrations of Yolanda Huneeus, a sister of the author, gave Papelucho a physical appearance. This new book for children very quickly became a bestseller in Chile and one edition followed another. And Papelucho becomes the hero of a new book every two or three years: "Papelucho the Almost Orphan" (1951), "Papelucho the Historian" (1955), "Papelucho the Detective" (1960), "Papelucho in Hospital" (1960), "Papelucho Lost!" (1962), "My Sister Ji" (1965), etc. The last Papelucho adventure appeared in 1974: "Am I Dix-lazy?".
Papelucho has always been very much present in Chilean bookshops. Indeed the Papelucho books were — and still are — bestsellers in Chile. The sales of the series, in all editions, sum up to more than five million copies sold. Right now it is edited by Random House in Santiago, Chile, with Alex Pelayo's color illustrations. The anual sales are about 80,000 copies.
For some time, when the authorities imposed titles as compulsory reading in schools, the book was on the list of obligatory reading. Now it is 'recomended reading' and the messages received from children via the internet indicate that it is very much present in the schoolroom.
Outside Chile
Papelucho has had a brilliant career outside Chile as well. The first book in the series, "Papelucho", very quickly found publishers eager to publish it in other languages. A first French edition came out in 1951 in the Collection "Rouge et Bleu" (GP publishers). The text was adapted and published with coloured illustrations as a large format book, which was very successful, 25,000 copies being rapidly sold and a second edition appearing two years later. It is listed among the international classics of children literature (e. gr. Kümmerling-Meibauer, Bettina, Klassiker der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. Ein internationales Lexikon, J. B. Metzler, 1999, S. 832-834: "Paz, Marcela").
Then Papelucho had a successful career in the Far East. The well-known Japanese House Kodansha (series “The most Excelent Children's Books of Modern World Authors”, 1972) published a Japanese translation with drawings of Marcela Claro Huneeus, the author's daughter. It is a beautiful hardcover book in a colourful cassette. 1980 a new French edition appeared and has survived several changes in the editing house: Bordas being succeeded by Pocket, then Havas Poche, until the end of the nineties.
A Greek edition was published by Kedros, Athens, 1984.
And recently Anicia in Rome has published an Italian version. The second volume came out by the end of 2007, "Papelucho quasi orfano" ("Papelucho the Almost Orphan"). Both volumes have been beautifully illustrated by Yana Bukler.
There is also a bilingual Spanish-English edition, which was available in Chile at the end of 2006. So an English translation of all twelve books of the series is available.
Awards
Marcela Paz and Papelucho have received many awards. The principal Chilean award in letters, the "Premio Nacional de Literatura", was given to Marcela Paz in 1982, a few years before her death in 1985. In 1968, "Papelucho the Misionary" received the Hans Christian Andersen award from the International Buro of Books for Young People (IBBY) in Amrisville, Switzerland.
Passages from "Papelucho" were included in 1976 in a Spanish official school reader for the 4th grade, together with other texts from "The Little Prince", as well as selections from the writings of Oscar Wilde, Espronceda, Tagore, etc. The French "FOCS-OCL" ("Fédération des Organismes de Communication Sociale - Office Chrétien du Livre") set Papelucho on its 1980 list of the 13 best books for children. And recently the bilingual edition mentioned above was put in the Honor List by the Chilean section of the IBBY in the "translations" category.
This young hero and his books have inspired several projects. There are books for small children beginning to read ("First readers") with passages from the series — big books with colourful illustrations (Random Mondadori). There is as well an Encyclopedia in ten volumes, where Papelucho serves as a guide and motivator for young readers. Recently an animated cartoon-picture was produced, "Papelucho and the Martian", based on one of the books. In just a few weeks it was seen by 200,000 children in Chile. There is also a version in US-English.
Adaptations for the theater have been made, which have been well received by children.
The Spanish language website www.papelucho.cl and www.marcelapaz.cl offers more information about the book series, about how to obtain them, about the creator of Papelucho and about the Society Ediciones Marcela Paz S. A. (which owns the author's rights), and about other current projects.
Raúl Claro Huneeus
August 2007
