Papelucho



"Papelucho" is a series of twelve books 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. The first book was published in 1947 and the last appeared in 1974: "Am I Dix-lazy?".


 * Papelucho (1947).
 * Papelucho Casi Huérfano (1951) (Papelucho the almost orphan).
 * Papelucho Historiador (1955) (Papelucho historian).
 * Papelucho Detective (1957) (Papelucho detective).
 * Papelucho en la Clínica (1958) (Papelucho at the hospital).
 * Papelucho Perdido (1960) (Papelucho lost).
 * Mi Hermana Ji, por Papelucho (1964) (My sister Ji, by Papelucho).
 * Papelucho Misionero (1966) (Papelucho missionary).
 * Papelucho y el Marciano (1968) (Papelucho and the Martian).
 * Mi Hermano Hippie (My hippie brother, by Papelucho).
 * Papelucho en Vacaciones (1971) (Papelucho on Vacation).
 * Papelucho ¿Soy Dix Leso? (1974) (Papelucho Am I dyslexic?, translated as Papelucho Am I dys-lazy?).

This book series provides examples of:

 * Adults Are Useless: Papelucho's parents are good people, but they don't do a lot to help him.
 * All Animals Are Domesticated: In Papelucho on vacation, the kid domesticates a snake. A SNAKE!
 * And a Puma, aka a mountain lion.
 * In Papelucho missionary he befriends a colony of gorillas and even adopts a gorilla kid as his personal secretary. He names him "Juanito", aka "Little John"
 * Aloof Big Brother: Javier, hinted to be much older than Papelucho.
 * An Aesop: Thankfully averted. Even though the books were written for children, they never try to moralize or anything like that.
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Jimena aka Ji.
 * Comic Book Time: ... for HOW many years has Papelucho been just 8 years old?
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Papelucho's peculiar tought process allows him to do a lot of awesome things that grown-ups can't. According to him, the only reason they can't is because "they are always in a hurry."
 * Character Title
 * Character Name and The Noun Phrase
 * Darkest Africa: This is how Papelucho imagines Africa in Papelucho missionary and feels cheated once he discovers it's a normal place.
 * Diary: The way all the books are presented.
 * Episode Finishes the Title
 * Literary Agent Hypothesis: The premise of the books. Technically it's an spoiler of the first book, so...
 * Free Range Children: Papelucho's adventures tend to take him VERY far away from his home, but his parents either don't notice or they don't take him seriously.
 * The Missionary: Papelucho missionary.
 * The Movie: Papelucho y el marciano. As the title implies, it's more or less based on the eponymous book, but it takes a lot of liberties.
 * Mr. Fixit: Papelucho sees himself as one. Too bad nobody gets him.
 * Mr. Imagination:
 * New Age Retro Hippie:
 * Not Allowed to Grow Up
 * Not Now Kid: Papelucho's parents could have avoided a LOT of problems if they listened to him from time on time. (Among other things, they are frequent victims of con artists.)
 * Pun Based Title: Papelucho ¿Soy Dix Leso?. You can see it doesn't work too good in English.
 * The Red Planet: Papelucho and the Martian, obviously. However, it's way too different of what you imagine when you think of Mars.
 * Secret Diary
 * Slice of Life
 * Kid Detective: Tries to be one on Papelucho detective.
 * One Gender School
 * Parental Abandonment: Papelucho the almost orphan. Technically, his parents just go to the US for a while, but he believes they have ditched him.
 * Patriotic Fervor: Papelucho historian, which is about him learning the history of America and specially Chile.
 * Who Names Their Kid Dude: Seriously? Papelucho?
 * It's speculated that Papelucho is supposed to be "Pepe Lucho" - a diminutive of "Jose Luis", a very common Latin-American name.
 * Word of God confirms it was named after a friend called Pepe Lucho.