1st year of Secondary Education

1. BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

The Paper Palace

José Zafra
Illustrator: Emilio Urberuaga.
Editorial: Anaya. Soup of books.
Place of editing: Madrid.
Edition date: 1998.
Pages: 97.

2. THE AUTHOR

José Zafra Castro is Spanish and lives in Córdoba. He has completed the
following posts:
Sergio's Stories. Ed. Bruño, 1996. (With this book, he won the Award
Lazarillo of Children's Literature in its 1995 call.
The Paper Palace. Ed. Anaya, 1998.
Tales from when I was. Anaya, 2002. (With this book I became a finalist)
in the National Prize for Children's Literature of that year).
Some more children's stories, collected in various published books
by Editorial Anaya ('50 soups', 'The Great Christmas Book').

3. ANALYSIS

Genre
Youth novel about the search for one's own identity.

Themes
Although a superficial reading may seem to present simply a
fun and exciting adventure story that happens to a
family of library mice, careful reading can reveal a
coming-of-age novel, in which the theme is mixed
loving (the first love of the young little mouse is presented) with the
need to search for one's own paths, beyond comfort and
family house security.
Argument
In the filthy library of an old mansion lives a family of
mice. They enjoy reading, learning, and gnawing the countless
pages of the vast collection, until one day, he enters the refuge of the cold
winter a field mouse. He spends the whole winter with them. During
that period, share the family's love for books and start a
romance with the daughter, Idolina. However, he longs for the truth of his Maizal.
yellow and, at the end of winter, decides to return home. The young woman does not
is able to resume her life without Justino, the field mouse, and escapes
from home to meet him. Lives then and an adventure in the
what you discover is that the knowledge acquired from books is not enough to
survive, and that the real world is much richer than the one
they show the pages of a book.

Characters
The main characters are:
Idolina, a young little mouse who lives with her family in the library
that they call The Paper Palace. It spends its kindly existence gnawing
and reading the books, without facing real dangers, since the vermin
they can pursue her only live on paper. One day she appears in her
the life of a field mouse. With it, you discover everything it can offer
real world to its senses.
Justino is a field mouse that runs away from the cold winter.
sheltering in the library of the old mansion. There he finds a
family of book mice with whom he coexists until it passes
winter. He falls in love with the daughter, Idolina, but longs for the real world and the
cornfield where he lived before, the real dangers that lurked around him, the
explosion of sensations (smells, touches, sounds) that it offered him
world, so he decides to return home.
Pablo and Hermes are the parents of Idolina. They have created a shelter.
among the pages of a vast encyclopedia and live happily among books.
Pablo loves math books and doesn't like the world.
exterior in which, according to him, he cannot find perfect circles. A
Hermes, the mother, loves novels. They also live with their ...
son Victor, a lover of languages and travel, and Rosendo, brother of
Pablo, who likes history.
Other secondary characters that appear in this novel are
the real animals that Idolina encounters in her escape: the owl, the
squirrel and the snail; and the "paper" animal that attacks Justino: the
crow.

Time
No real time is specified, other than the passage of the seasons.
from winter to spring. This fact facilitates the location of the
facts at any moment in history, since it is not narrated a
I experience history, but an inner one.
 Space
There are two clear spaces: the interior space of the library, which
it is a familiar and recognizable space, where comfort is present and the
family security; and the outdoor space of the field and the jungle, where
finds the unknown and the danger. However, the interior space
a warmth, the absence of reality. There one can feel nothing but the
color, the noise and the taste of paper sheets. The exterior is, by the
contrary, the truth and reality of smells, sounds, and flavors
of the world.

Perspective and structure

The narration is presented from the omniscient third person and recounts
following a chronological order of events. It ends with a
final open that starts the change that will take Idolina to her beloved
Justino and his own maturity.
It is structured into 15 chapters with the following contents:
Chapter 1. Description of the old mansion, the library and its inhabitants.
Capt. 2. Description of the library mouse family that "eat what
they read and read what they eat.
Chapter 3. Arrival of the field mouse and the family's escape to the refuge of the
encyclopedia.
Chapter 4. Meeting of Pablo and Rosendo, at the piano, with Justino.
Chapter 5. Return to the encyclopedia and search for Hermes and Victor.
Chap. 6. Episode of the Raven.
Cap. 7. Passing the winter all together in the Paper Palace.
Chapter 8. Justino's Infatuation with Idolina. Justino's Longing for His
Yellow Corn.
Chapter 9. Justino's Party and Farewell.
Chapter 10. Return to Normalcy and Idolina's Melancholy.
Chapter 11. Changes in Idolina and the intention to leave. Imprisonment and
flight.
Chapter 12. Idolina in the outside: meadow and jungle.
Chapter 13. In the account with the owl and the squirrel.

Chapter 14. Encounter with the snail and journey to the Maizal.
Chapter 15. Final reflections of Idolina after the flood.

Language and style

Although it is a simple book to read, it uses a language
strongly poetic, filled with metaphors and synesthesias. The games of
realities (the world of books versus the real world)
they provide the author with many possibilities for word games. Some
examples of these poetic expressions are:
Some clouds had been holding back the urge to rain for hours.
 14)
Not even the echo returned the blurred traces of their voices.
"The mooing of the cows was mute serpentine, falling upon the
grass without making any noise." (p. 46)
The forceful drop of dew that, just before dawn, bends the
back of the jaramago.” (p. 56)
The chrysalis inside the cocoon, neither worm anymore, nor yet butterfly.
The world was a red sunset, with three chestnut trees in the background and the
murmur of a stream, winding down from the other end
del prado.” (p. 66)
And there, Justino, and the whole world, would close in around her like a
hug

4. READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

Why do the mice call the library the Palace of Paper?

2. What are the members of the mouse family called?
3. What were they doing all the time in the library?
4. In what season of the year does Justino arrive?
5. Where do you live?
6. Describe Justino's personality.
7. Why doesn't the crow kill Justino?
8. How long does Justino live with the family?
9. Why is Justino leaving?
10. How does Idolina escape from the confinement imposed by her father?
11. How many animals does Idolina encounter on her journey abroad?
12. Does she make friends with all the animals she meets? Justify the answer.
response.
13. In which seasons of the year do the events occur?
14. Could you try a logical explanation for your answer to the
previous question?

5. QUOTE(S) AND REFLECT

Throughout the novel, the narrator intersperses some reflections that may
are interesting to debate:
Page 58: "How strange that when one changes inside, it doesn't also change on the outside."
outside; that way everything would be much easier. Idolina was Idolina on the outside, but on
inside who was it?
Page 52: “It's strange –Idolina said–... until now I hadn't realized
that even with silence things can be said.
Page 93: 'Fear, sadness, pain, joy... no, this outside world did not have
nothing to do with that orderly world in which he had been until then
used to
Page 60: "How could he have spent his whole life reading and reading without falling
in the realization that books only contain reflections, and that the things that in
Do they always look outside?
And they looked at each other with sadness and, at the same time,
joy. In a way that no encyclopedia definition ever could
to catch.
Page 61: "Idolina loved all the members of her small family and
she was also known to be dear to them. But spring was outside, full of
cheerful colors, of intense aromas and wonderful sounds (a lark
was singing right next to me). It seemed as if the world, like her, was
also transforming. The winter had kept him locked up in a prison
similar to hers, and now the dark bars of the branches were covered with
flowers. And the voice, that voice so familiar..: Yes, Justino and spring were
calling, and she had to meet him! And not tomorrow, nor next week
what is coming, if not right now, now! But how to do it without hurting their
parents?
Page 97: “Idolina knew that soon, very soon, when the water receded,
he would be back on land. And there Justino, and the whole world, would close off
about her like a hug.

6. VOCABULARY
Look up the following words from the book in the dictionary that may
present difficulties: 'voracious, to care a whit, to sniff, nook,
stalactite
espeluznante, galería, graznido, aturdido, girón, pasadizo, frondodo, vasto,
savannah
serious
mixture
wetland, lowland.

7. WORKSHOP ON CREATIVITY AND READING ANIMATION

Search for images on the Internet that can illustrate the landscapes that
They are described on pages 40, 44, and 46.
Search the InternetThe provided text is a URL and does not contain translatable content.the sounds that
accompany the descriptions.
Share your own experience: remember a moment when
you have experienced a ridiculous feeling of fear, like the one described
on pages 25-26.
The novel states that there are no perfect circles in the
real world. Hold a photography contest in class, in the
that geometric shapes of reality can be noticed.
The mice choose the words from the encyclopedia to make their
own galleries. In groups, work on the dictionary to create
a gallery that explores six different words. Afterwards
Explain a story that justifies your decisions.
In the novel, Benedetto Grocce is mentioned. Look for information.
about him and create a mural with the collected information and
some images.
Re-live Idolina's adventure with the owl, the squirrel and the
snail, until the rain starts. Create a theatrical version,
 for children, of these scenes. Do a voice casting and
record a read representation. Create a video with drawings
created by you or from the internet and your reading.
In the crow episode, Justino draws the animal's attention to
base of insults, very clever. Reread chapter 6 and invent.
similar insults for another animal that you don't like (a
snake, a vulture, etc.

8. PERSONAL OPINION

This novel is a text especially suitable for younger students.

reading ability. Its short chapters and large font make it easy for the
the most behind student in this field.

[Guide made by Mª Luisa Caride]