[1] The book is one of the most popular works by Jiménez, and unfolds around a writer and his eponymous donkey, Platero ("silvery").

Platero is a silver-colored donkey ("plata" means silver in Spanish; "platero" means "silvery") who throughout the years is seemingly the only constant friend and companion of the author, who makes observations to and confides in him.

In 1968, the Spanish film director Alfredo Castellón adapted the book into a movie by the same title.

The guitarist and composer Eduardo Sainz de la Maza also wrote a suite of eight pieces for guitar based on Platero Y Yo, which bears the same title.

A theatrical adaptation has been written by Josep-Antoni Garí,[3] published in the literary magazine Ex Tempore and presented at the literary evening of the Circle of Writers of the United Nations, in Geneva, on January 20, 2017, thus commemorating the centenary of the work.