Manolito Four-Eyes
Elvira Lindo
Illustrated by Emilio Urberuaga
Translated by Joanne Moriarty
1994
144 pages
Published by Marshall Cavendish

“My name is Manolito Garcia Moreno, but if you come to my neighborhood and ask the first guy that passes by, ‘Excuse me, please, Manolito Garcia Moreno?’ – one of two things will happen. The guy will shrug, or he’ll mutter something like: ‘Hey, beats me.”

That’s because nobody knows me as Manolito Garcia Moreno, not even Big Ears Lopez, and he’s my best friend; even though sometimes he can be a dog and a traitor (and other times, a dog traitor), he’s still my best friend and he’s a whole lotta cool.

In Carabanchel – that’s the name of my neighborhood in Madrid, in case I haven’t told you – everyone knows me as Manolito Four-Eyes. Everyone who knows me, of course. People who don’t know me don’t know that I’ve worn glasses since I was five years old. Well, that’s their loss.” (opening paragraphs)

Softdrink picked this book out for Billy (yes, this is Billy writing this post) when she visited Idlewild Books in New York. You know, on account of Billy kinda looking like Manolito, ‘cause of the glasses. Just don’t go getting any ideas that you can call Billy Billy Four-Eyes.

So Billy read this book and it was fun. Manolito is cool. Or, as Manolito would say, “Manolito’s so cool, he’s a whole lotta cool.” Manolito lives with his mom and dad and grandpa and his little bro, the Bozo. Okay, so that’s not his real name, but that’s what Manolito calls him. In fact, Manolito claims to have forgotten his real name. Oh, and Manolito was named after his dad’s truck, which was named after Manolito’s dad, Manuel. Billy sure is glad Billy’s parents didn’t name him after a truck.

Manolito has a best friend, Big Ears Lopez, and a wannabe girlfriend, The One-and-Only Susana. He’s tormented by Ozzy, the neighborhood bully, and he likes to talk so much he got sent to the school psychiatrist. Who was so bored she told him not to come back. Billy thought that part was pretty funny. Manolito tells stories about what happens at school, and his Grandpa’s birthday party, and what happens when Susana comes over to play (she broke something) and how he always gets into trouble and his mom lectures him for hours. (Billy never gets into trouble, in case you were wondering.)

Billy really liked reading this book, except for the one part when Manolito called Susana “the chick.” Billy knows how much that term bothers Softdrink, so that made Billy a little uncomfortable. Maybe it just doesn’t translate well?

There were no goats, but that’s okay. Madrid is a big city, and goats aren’t really into big cities (except on vacation). But there were cute pictures.

And funny story. The day after Softdrink bought this book, Billy and Softdrink were cruising around BEA and Billy spotted another Manolito book. Billy made Softdrink ask (politely, of course) for a review copy. And Billy made sure Softdrink said thank you. So Billy will be reading that one soon! Yippee!