CHILDREN AND YA HIGHLIGHTS 2014 Lucia Riff . [email protected]CHILDREN & YA AUTHORS Adélia PRADO Adriana FALCÃO Adriana LISBOA Antonio PRATA Carol SABAR Cecília VASCONCELLOS Cíntia MOSCOVICH Emilio FRAIA Flávia LINS E SILVA Flávio CARNEIRO João Luiz Anzanello CARRASCOZA Kledir RAMIL Leticia WIERZCHOWSKI Livia GARCIA-ROZA Lucrécia ZAPPI Luis Fernando VERÍSSIMO Luiz Claudio CARDOSO Lya LUFT Lygia Fagundes TELLES Marcelo PIRES Marcio VASSALLO Maria Valéria REZENDE Mariana VERÍSSIMO Marina COLASANTI ONDJAKI Ricardo LÍSIAS Rodrigo LACERDA Rosa Amanda STRAUSZ Socorro ACIOLI Suzana VARGAS Tércia MONTENEGRO Tony BELLOTTO Vanessa BARBARA Vitor RAMIL CLASSIC AUTHORS Caio Fernando ABREU Carlos DRUMMOND DE ANDRADE Érico VERÍSSIMO MILLÔR Fernandes Mario QUINTANA Moacyr SCLIAR Rachel de QUEIROZ Ricardo RAMOS Sylvia ORTHOF
Transcript
PILAR’S DIARY OF GREECE (2010)Pilar loves travelling. Her series of books is well known in Brazil. Now she keeps a diary, describing every moment of her first adventure. She grew up without her dad, in her grandpa’s house. When Pilar’s grandpa goes to Greece and she hears that he is never coming back, she cannot accept it and wishes she could go after him. With a magic hammock, she and her best friend Breno travel to Greece and meet several gods along the way. But life among them isn’t easy and no one will ever be the same after this adventure.
PILAR’S DIARY IN THE AMAZON (2011)On the second book, Pilar travels to the Amazon, searching for her father,an anthropologist that might be lost in the Jungle. There, Pilar and Breno meet Maiara, a local girl who has never seen the sea. During the trip over the Amazon river, they see people cuting trees ilegaly, they scape from a huge snake, they save a baby sloth, meet Iara - the Siren of the river - and arrive to the ocean, where Maiara can finally experience the salty water full of waves.
PILAR’S DIARY IN EGYPT (2012)Pilar enters her magic hammock and travels with Breno and her cat Samba to Egypt, where they will try to help young Tutancamon to get his throne back. They fly together over the desert with a Phoenix, they sail on the Nile river escaping from crocodiles, they meet goddess Isis and god Horus who give them a special help and, most important of all, Pilar claim the right to learn hieroglyphs! Although the school was only for royal family or for boys, Pilar manages to prove that she also deserves to know how to write hieroglyphs.
Flavia’s most famous character is Pilar, a curious girl that loves to travel and discover myths and stories from several different cultures. Pilar has been in adventures in places like Egypt, Greece, Amazonas (Brazil), and Machu Pichu (Peru). Her books have been sold to Germany, France, Latin America and China.
Books from the series:
THE PILAR SERIES FLAVIA LINS E SILVAZahar
A MáquINA Nordestina is a place where no one wants to stay anymore. The only thing that can be counted in this land without future is the void left by those who want to go to the other side of the line, where the world must be happening. And is exactly in this little town - forgotten even by the Lord - that the love between Antônio and Karina happens. With a precise and poetic prose, the author constructs a story capable of stopping time and changing the course of this tale and others that Antônio began to tell after he looked at his Karina, who, by then, had a look of good-bye, and promised: “Is it the world that you want? I’ll bring it to you, then”. “The machine” is a fable about love and time. A love story as big as the world.
MANIA DE EXPLICAÇÃO“Loneliness is an island that longs for the boats”. The sentence, filled with poetry, is one of many that Adriana Falcão has sculpted with sensibility and included in Explanation Freak. The book is dedicated to her nine year old daughter Isabel, who, like all children that age, doesn’t miss the chance of asking “why?” or “what is this?” when something is not clear. And, page after page, Adriana “explains” some words that may be of difficult comprehension for those who are beginning to understand the world. Some examples: “Anguish is a very tight knot right in de middle of your peace” or “Success is when you do what you do well, only everyone notices”.Explanation Freak delights young readers, who lose themselves, literally, in its pages; after all, they are not numbered. And, in this game of coming and going in search of an explanation for some word, children plunge further into the spirit of the book, which is to satiate curiosity. The didacticism of putting the words in alphabetical order did not occur to Adriana Facão, though. “Homesick” comes before “a lot” that comes before “desperation” that comes before “before”.Sold to: Portugal (Vogais & Companhia), Mexico (Fondo de Cultura)Award: Ofelia Fontes Award – The best for children, by the National Foundation of Children and YA Book (2001)
LuNA CLARA & APOLLO ONZEEverything takes place in the region of Northern Folly. This is the story of Luna Clara and Apollo Eleven, but it’s also the story of Henceforth and Adventure, of Unforseen and Bychance, of coincidences and mismatches, of good and bad luck...but it could be your story too. A story of astounding creativity, a simple plot with a sophisticated structure, about love’s comings and goings. “What makes each love story is precisely it’s coincidences, it’s setbacks, loose events, it’s hopes, it’s winds, it’s time. Who knows what would have been of the story of Adventure and Hanceforth, had it happened any other way?” (pg. 251)
MuRuRu NO AMAZONASMururu is a little tree trunk, a boat for just one person, that sails like a loose leaf in the vastness of the Amazon waters. Mururu is the little tree trunk of a young girl that presents herself being just like her name — Andorinha. Dorinha leaves her mother and her floating house to search for her father, but finds Piú instead, a half-indian, a young man that tastes like fruit and smells like earth. Dorinha crosses the junction of the crystal waters of the Rio Negro with the muddy broth of the Solimões and becomes a woman.
Sold to: Serbia (Carabina Knjiga)Awards: João-de-Barro Award, for YA literature (2006), Highly Recommend for Young Adults, by the National Foundation of Children and YA Book (2011).
PILAR’S DIARY OF MACHu PICCHu (April, 2014)Travelling with the magic hammock, Pilar and her friend Breno arrive in Cusco, in Peru, searching for Pilar’s cat named Samba. There, they meet Yma, a beautiful girl which is taken to Machu Picchu to serve the inca Emperor as one of the daughter’s of the sun. To save Yma and the cat, Pilar and Breno enter the Sacred City with no one noticing. There, they witness several sacred rituals and will need a lot of creativity to scape such a guarded fortress hidden in the middle of the forest.
THE MACHINE AdrIANA FALcãoSalamandra, new edition 2013
EXPLANATION FREAk AdrIANA FALcãoSalamandra, new edition 2013
LuNA CLARA & APOLLO ELEVEN AdrIANA FALcãoSalamandra, new edition 2013
MuRuRu IN THE AMAZON FLAVIA LINS E SILVAManati, 2010
Caio Fernando ABREUCarlos DRUMMOND DE ANDRADEÉrico VERÍSSIMOMILLÔR FernandesMario QUINTANAMoacyr SCLIARRachel de QUEIROZRicardo RAMOSSylvia ORTHOF
O FAZEDOR DE VELHOSEvery teenager feels that “there is nothing worst than being treated as a child when you’re sixteen.” On the other hand, as adults we regret the years that have passed, carrying the burden of responsabilities. The common fact between those two stages of life is that time overwhelms us all; nothing can bring back certain moments of our lives – nor anticipate them. To face the passing of time the best way is to keep yourself emotionally sharp, always ready to be moved. In The Maker of Old People, the author Rodrigo Lacerda shows us the main character, Pedro, evolving into adulthood. As in the best classic novels, Pedro learns that life may be not so sweet as a first kiss, but he finds in literature, and in love, the answers he needs. This is a tale of tenderness and affection, and the author’s ability to recreate these feelings makes his work an emotional revelation. Rodrigo Lacerda’s prose, at times funny, other times moving, captures readers of all ages. Awards: Highly recommended for Young Adults in 2009, by the National Foundation of Children and YA Book, Jabuti Award, Glória Pondé Award by the National Library Foundation, White Ravens Catalogue 2008Sold to: Switzerland (Joie de Lire), Mexico (Macmillan)
MAIS Ou MENOS NORMALEverything is more or less normal — and more or less extraordinary — in the lives of those who dwell in the city of Porto Alegre. Gaia, for example, the girl who tells this story, is an almost normal teenager. “Almost” because in her house no one watches TV, drinks soda or eat meat or anything that’s industrialized. Gaia’s mother works reading people’s future on Tarot cards, and Gaia’s father doesn’t really like to work. In school, her only friend is Marcelo, a lonely boy that is always surrounded by bodyguards. To explain it better: Marcelo is the son of a Secretary of State that fights drug dealing at the international borders of Brazil and against whom is devised a plot of crimes and murders that involves all the characters. To top it off, Gaia discovers that she may or may not have been adopted. The city of Porto Alegre, inventively and tenderly recreated by one of its main writers, is the stage for a lot of action, like kidnappings, car chases and shootouts. But it is also the environment where peaceful values like loyalty to friends, the love for your family and this beautiful gesture that is adopting children are asserted.Cintia was born in Porto Alegre, and her latest book, “Such a Brilliant Thing, The Rain” won the Portugal Telecom Award in the short story category.
CAFé-COM-LEITE & FEIjÃO-COM-ARROZFrom the wild, but family protected, soccer games played at the backyard of the house everyday after school, under a blazing sun or a heavy pouring rain, to the open field matches disputed among strangers in the sandy beaches of Santos. In this book, writer Alberto Martins intertwines his soccer childhood memories with the excitement of growing up in the city of Pelé in the Sixties, at the height of the Santos Football Club, the incredible team that “played by music” and even stopped a war between two countries! The result is a delicious book that blends hilariously funny passages and a moving understanding of the world, appealing to readers of all ages.Alberto Martins was born in Santos, Brazil, in 1958. His latest book, “Lívia and the African Graveyard”, was considered best novel of the year by the APCA 2013 Award.
AquELA áGuA TODAThe eleven stories of All that Water gather accounts of first experiences or life-altering moments — the first love, the first disappointment with a friend, seeing the ocean, moving away from home. Taking place almost always within the family, they involve the delicate — and sometimes troubled — coexistence between fathers, mothers, children, uncles and aunts, their findings, weaknesses, sorrows, and surprises.Awards: Highly recommended for Young Adults in 2013, by the National Foundation of Children and YA Book; 2º place in the Jabuti Award 2013 (Short story); São Paulo’s Arts Critics Association Award 2012 (Short story); White Ravens Catalogue 2013Sold to: Switzerland (Joie de Lire)
A SACOLA PERDIDAThe Lost Bag tells the story of a group of children who decide to find out who has forgotten the groceries at the stairs during a power outage. With a deft and fun narrative, little by little the text shows the dynamics of the building, its residents, and how the children understand and solve the problems with which they are faced. The text discusses the problem of energy waste and tries to present solutions, always through the children’s perspective, and based on the need of living together. The kids become detectives that investigate not only the mystery of the missing bag, but in truth how can we find practical solutions for some very serious ecological issues. The building turns out to be a sort of miniature world. The end of the book holds yet another surprise: the writing of the book itself is a mystery that the children will have to solve!
RASCuNHO DE FAMÍLIAMaria and José are foragers in different parts of a big landfill and, at the end of each day, they meet at the shack where they live nearby to share the valuables they have found among the dunghills. And also to make plans — like getting a decent job, build a little brick house, bear a child. The two beings, in draft, search to write for themselves a better and more definite text, dreaming of a written out life. At the end of one day, during which the whole story is told, both of them, each one on their own part of the landfill, find something that they would never dream of finding in the garbage — showing a transformation in the society in which they are forgotten. A narrative in which poetry looms from the rubbish, taking the two creatures out of the draft to lift them to the sublime condition of the human.
SETE OSSOS E uMA MALDIÇÃOIn this book of horror stories, Rosa Amanda Strausz constructs apparently common stories that, through an expertly crafted suspense, become horrifying narratives. But, in this case, the fear doesn’t paralyze, on the contrary, it only increases the desire to get to the next page, something that requires strength. In “Seven bones and a curse” there’s no blood dripping or splattered brains, as is informed in the dust jacket. Nothing explicit or distasteful. In it, the reader’s imagination is in charge of creating the macabre scenes forged through an elegant text. And it is exactly this suggestion of terror, fantastic literature of the best kind, that makes it so compelling.
Nu DE bOTAS In “Naked in boots”, Antonio Prata revisits the most memorable events of his childhood. The memoirs are illuminations about the first years of the author’s life, told with the precision and humor to which his thousands of readers have become accustomed in Folha de São Paulo, newspaper in which Prata has a weekly column since 2010. The first memories of his backyard, the neighbourhood friends, the vacations at the beach, the divorce of his parents, the Halley comet, Bozo and SBT cartoons, the first love, the sex discovered in porn magazines — all the sentimental education of a middle-class boy from São Paulo, born in the 1970s, is shown in “Naked in boots”. What is striking, however, is the peculiarity of his perspective. The texts are not the memories of the adult looking back and reviewing his journey with nostalgia or detachment. On the contrary, the author returns to the point of view of the child, who is amazed by the world and gives a very particular sense to it — a funny, mysterious, lyric, and enchanted one.
bREVE HISTóRIA DE uM PEquENO AMOR The water that seeps into the office through a broken roof tile initiates an encounter of love. The author, owner of that office, finds herself confronted by the need of saving a life, the one of the baby pigeon abandoned in the nest beneath the tiles. She will have to improvise as a mother, since she knows nothing about the needs of those birds. And the pigeon will have to improvise as a son, since he knows nothing about the one who protects and cares for him. Like in all loving relationships, both of them progress slowly, paying attention to one another while they seek to understand. They don’t speak the same language, and they are not of the same species, but it doesn’t matter much, because affection knows other ways to get to comprehension. And it is about affection when she tries to teach him to fly, or when he, free, answers her call. Gently, the differences between them are overcome at each new stage of development, at each new victory. Until the completion of this cycle of goodwill that, being brief, becomes unforgettable. (English sample translation available)
FELIZES quASE SEMPREEverybody knows that a good fairy tale ends with the princess and her prince charming living happily ever after. But what few people know is what happens or does not happen when the story ends. Antonio Prata and the renowned Brazilian cartoonist Laerte show here, in delicious detail, how this so called perfect life is, and how “happily ever after” can become a big problem. And they prove, with lots of fun, that even in the enchanted world a little unhappiness now and then doesn’t hurt anyone. (English & Spanish translations available).Awards: Finalist of the Jabuti Award 2013 (Children’s Book)
CINCO VEZES CINCO CIPRESTESHe wasn’t a rich man, nor was he a poor man, he was just a man, and this man had a dream. Thus begins the first short story of this book. And thus begin the other four, in a narrative game in which, from the same starting point, we are led through five different paths towards unexpected endings.We’ve always known that a story, any story, is both the seed for other narratives and soil where they grow. Narrating is a continuum in diversity. Driven by this conviction, Marina Colasanti took the creative challenge of touching the sensibility of readers of any age through five stories that, although different, are the same story. In these little literary jewels we are faced with the reunion of dream and destiny, and follow the great symbolic journey of the man that answers his call.
O VERÃO DO CHIbOIn The Summer of Chibo, written in partnership between Vanessa Barbara and Emilio Fraia, a boy no more than seven years old, immersed in a very singular universe, describes his adventures during his summer vacation, in the middle of a corn field in the company of his friends. But this is a different summer. Because Chibo, his older brother, mysteriously disappears, and all the other boys seem to do the same. This is a subtle work, often humorous, other times touching, about the mysteries that surround growing up. It was a finalist in the Prêmio São Paulo de Literatura. (English sample available)“A little gem about the mysteries that surround becoming a grown-up.”O Estado de S. Paulo“Another world in miniature, with lyricism and absurdity to match the fantasies and traumas of childhood.” Folha de S. Paulo
MAIS DE 100 HISTóRIASAs a poet gathers his poems in his Complete Works, so does Marina Colasanti. In this book, she gathers the fairy tales that represent a milestone in her creative trajectory. There are 116 original narratives that, although situated in the realm of the imaginary, exude modernity. Or aren’t love, fear of death, the struggle for power, solidarity and loneliness, greed and compassion, the never-ending search for answers modern?This is not about imitating the past, nor recreating the genre using its key-elements. It’s about plunging into the unconscious and, like the mythical narrators did, harvest the stories that it tells.With verbal economy and refined language, these surprising stories take readers of any age by the hand and lead them, not only to the unexpected ending, but to an emotional meeting with their own self.
uMA AVENTuRA ANIMALFour teenagers meet in the Amazonian city of Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil. Each one of them has reasons to feel lonely and suffer: Anderson is too shy, he hides behind his sketchbook and expresses himself only through drawings; Gabriela is so small that she is taken for a child and mocked by her schoolmates; Gil lost his mother and, when he is not at school, lives almost alone with his skateboard, as his father is always away, working; and Cláudio is isolated, seen as a boring nerd. They discover a gang planning to traffic wild animals illegally in the region, threatening cruelly the life of many species and the ecological balance in that part of the Amazon. They feel responsible for doing something against it, but what can a small group of fourteen year old school kids do? No adult would give any attention to them unless they can prove their accusation. They decide to investigate and collect information and evidence. This leads them to frightening but successful adventures, in which they discover how the facts that make them feel weak in everyday life become superpowers when put together at the service of a worthy cause.
CLASSIFICADOS E NEM TANTO With a body of work that includes prose, poetry, chronicles, short stories and books for children and young people, the author now returns to the children’s universe with a lovely book of poetry for the little ones. “There are people that search the classified ads looking for a well-located apartment, a new car, a dog with a pedigree. But there are people that search for a flying carpet, the key to which they already lost the keyhole, the imaginary friend’s address, the wake of the shooting star. This book is for them”, explains the author.In the classified ads that Grandpa reads in the paper, they sell cat, car, cushion or couch. They sell brush, bicycle, county fair or soda-pop. But, when you have imagination, there are not enough boundaries: in three or four lines we find chilly mermaids, shooting stars, graffiti without walls and even a ripe pineapple.Want Ads and Not So Much gathers 80 little short poems, “nutty”, illustrated by beautiful xylographs by artist Rubem Grilo. If you look for things that are hard to find, you just have to open this book and find whatever your imagination tells you to.Sold to: Spain (El Jinete Azul)
CHILDREN AND YA HIGHLIGHTS 2014THE MAkER OF OLD PEOPLE rodrIGo LAcErdAcosac Naify, 2008
COFFEE wITH MILk & bEANS wITH RICE ALbErto MArtINScompanhia das Letras, 2004
ALL THAT wATER João ANZANELLo cArrAScoZA cosac Naify, 2012
FAMILY DRAFT João ANZANELLo cArrAScoZAdSoP, Abril, 2014
NAkED IN bOOTS ANtoNIo PrAtAcompanhia das Letras, october 2013
ALMOST COMPLETELY HAPPILY EVER AFTER ANtoNIo PrAtAEditora 34, 2012
THE SuMMER OF CHIbO VANESSA bArbArA E EMILIo FrAIAAlfaguara, 2008
A wILD ADVENTuRE MArIA VALÉrIA rEZENdEdSoP, April 2014
MORE OR LESS NORMAL cINtIA MoScoVIchFtd, new edition, April 2014
THE LOST bAG rIcArdo LÍSIASdSoP, April 2014
SEVEN bONES AND A CuRSE roSA AMANdA StrAuSZGlobal, new edition 2013
SHORT STORY OF A TINY LOVE MArINA coLASAtIFtd, 2013
FIVE TIME FIVE CYPRESSES MArINA coLASANtIForthcoming - Global, 2015
MORE THAN A HuNDRED STORIES MArINA coLASANtIForthcoming - Global, 2015
wANT ADS AND NOT SO MuCH MArINA coLASANtI Galera record, 2010
MY AFRICAN PRINCESS MArcIo VASSALo (Abacatte, 2011)
MINHA PRINCESSA AFRICANA“Minha princesa africana” tells a love story made of endless letters and phone calls from across the ocean. “Her name was Marinela. No one believed that my girlfriend was a princess. Some people didn’t even know there were princesses in Africa. But mine was from there, from Angola. Marinela was very white and had more freckles than the sky of Luanda. Actually, we had seen each other only once in our lives, and every day we awaited for the day when we would see each other again. While the day didn’t arrive, Marinela called me every night and we would talk until she had fallen asleep. With her Portuguese accent, the princess would tell me that she could only sleep after hearing my voice. Or was it me that could only sleep after talking in her ear? Oh, my letters to Marinela were even longer than the hours we would spend listening to one another, and the hours we spent listening to one another were longer than the Nile”. With papier maché illustrations by artist Carol W., who has created exclusive pieces for the story, “Minha princesa africana” makes us want to love without haste, but with the deepest urgency to be happy.
O FAZEDOR DE VELHOSEvery teenager feels that “there is nothing worst than being treated as a child when you’re sixteen.” On the other hand, as adults we regret the years that have passed, carrying the burden of responsabilities. The common fact between those two stages of life is that time overwhelms us all; nothing can bring back certain moments of our lives – nor anticipate them. To face the passing of time the best way is to keep yourself emotionally sharp, always ready to be moved. In The Maker of Old People, the author Rodrigo Lacerda shows us the main character, Pedro, evolving into adulthood. As in the best classic novels, Pedro learns that life may be not so sweet as a first kiss, but he finds in literature, and in love, the answers he needs. This is a tale of tenderness and affection, and the author’s ability to recreate these feelings makes his work an emotional revelation. Rodrigo Lacerda’s prose, at times funny, other times moving, captures readers of all ages. Awards: Highly recommended for Young Adults in 2009, by the National Foundation of Children and YA Book, Jabuti Award, Glória Pondé Award by the National Library Foundation, White Ravens Catalogue 2008Sold to: Switzerland (Joie de Lire), Mexico (Macmillan)
MAIS Ou MENOS NORMALEverything is more or less normal — and more or less extraordinary — in the lives of those who dwell in the city of Porto Alegre. Gaia, for example, the girl who tells this story, is an almost normal teenager. “Almost” because in her house no one watches TV, drinks soda or eat meat or anything that’s industrialized. Gaia’s mother works reading people’s future on Tarot cards, and Gaia’s father doesn’t really like to work. In school, her only friend is Marcelo, a lonely boy that is always surrounded by bodyguards. To explain it better: Marcelo is the son of a Secretary of State that fights drug dealing at the international borders of Brazil and against whom is devised a plot of crimes and murders that involves all the characters. To top it off, Gaia discovers that she may or may not have been adopted. The city of Porto Alegre, inventively and tenderly recreated by one of its main writers, is the stage for a lot of action, like kidnappings, car chases and shootouts. But it is also the environment where peaceful values like loyalty to friends, the love for your family and this beautiful gesture that is adopting children are asserted.Cintia was born in Porto Alegre, and her latest book, “Such a Brilliant Thing, The Rain” won the Portugal Telecom Award in the short story category.
CAFé-COM-LEITE & FEIjÃO-COM-ARROZFrom the wild, but family protected, soccer games played at the backyard of the house everyday after school, under a blazing sun or a heavy pouring rain, to the open field matches disputed among strangers in the sandy beaches of Santos. In this book, writer Alberto Martins intertwines his soccer childhood memories with the excitement of growing up in the city of Pelé in the Sixties, at the height of the Santos Football Club, the incredible team that “played by music” and even stopped a war between two countries! The result is a delicious book that blends hilariously funny passages and a moving understanding of the world, appealing to readers of all ages.Alberto Martins was born in Santos, Brazil, in 1958. His latest book, “Lívia and the African Graveyard”, was considered best novel of the year by the APCA 2013 Award.
AquELA áGuA TODAThe eleven stories of All that Water gather accounts of first experiences or life-altering moments — the first love, the first disappointment with a friend, seeing the ocean, moving away from home. Taking place almost always within the family, they involve the delicate — and sometimes troubled — coexistence between fathers, mothers, children, uncles and aunts, their findings, weaknesses, sorrows, and surprises.Awards: Highly recommended for Young Adults in 2013, by the National Foundation of Children and YA Book; 2º place in the Jabuti Award 2013 (Short story); São Paulo’s Arts Critics Association Award 2012 (Short story); White Ravens Catalogue 2013Sold to: Switzerland (Joie de Lire)
A SACOLA PERDIDAThe Lost Bag tells the story of a group of children who decide to find out who has forgotten the groceries at the stairs during a power outage. With a deft and fun narrative, little by little the text shows the dynamics of the building, its residents, and how the children understand and solve the problems with which they are faced. The text discusses the problem of energy waste and tries to present solutions, always through the children’s perspective, and based on the need of living together. The kids become detectives that investigate not only the mystery of the missing bag, but in truth how can we find practical solutions for some very serious ecological issues. The building turns out to be a sort of miniature world. The end of the book holds yet another surprise: the writing of the book itself is a mystery that the children will have to solve!
RASCuNHO DE FAMÍLIAMaria and José are foragers in different parts of a big landfill and, at the end of each day, they meet at the shack where they live nearby to share the valuables they have found among the dunghills. And also to make plans — like getting a decent job, build a little brick house, bear a child. The two beings, in draft, search to write for themselves a better and more definite text, dreaming of a written out life. At the end of one day, during which the whole story is told, both of them, each one on their own part of the landfill, find something that they would never dream of finding in the garbage — showing a transformation in the society in which they are forgotten. A narrative in which poetry looms from the rubbish, taking the two creatures out of the draft to lift them to the sublime condition of the human.
SETE OSSOS E uMA MALDIÇÃOIn this book of horror stories, Rosa Amanda Strausz constructs apparently common stories that, through an expertly crafted suspense, become horrifying narratives. But, in this case, the fear doesn’t paralyze, on the contrary, it only increases the desire to get to the next page, something that requires strength. In “Seven bones and a curse” there’s no blood dripping or splattered brains, as is informed in the dust jacket. Nothing explicit or distasteful. In it, the reader’s imagination is in charge of creating the macabre scenes forged through an elegant text. And it is exactly this suggestion of terror, fantastic literature of the best kind, that makes it so compelling.
Nu DE bOTAS In “Naked in boots”, Antonio Prata revisits the most memorable events of his childhood. The memoirs are illuminations about the first years of the author’s life, told with the precision and humor to which his thousands of readers have become accustomed in Folha de São Paulo, newspaper in which Prata has a weekly column since 2010. The first memories of his backyard, the neighbourhood friends, the vacations at the beach, the divorce of his parents, the Halley comet, Bozo and SBT cartoons, the first love, the sex discovered in porn magazines — all the sentimental education of a middle-class boy from São Paulo, born in the 1970s, is shown in “Naked in boots”. What is striking, however, is the peculiarity of his perspective. The texts are not the memories of the adult looking back and reviewing his journey with nostalgia or detachment. On the contrary, the author returns to the point of view of the child, who is amazed by the world and gives a very particular sense to it — a funny, mysterious, lyric, and enchanted one.
bREVE HISTóRIA DE uM PEquENO AMOR The water that seeps into the office through a broken roof tile initiates an encounter of love. The author, owner of that office, finds herself confronted by the need of saving a life, the one of the baby pigeon abandoned in the nest beneath the tiles. She will have to improvise as a mother, since she knows nothing about the needs of those birds. And the pigeon will have to improvise as a son, since he knows nothing about the one who protects and cares for him. Like in all loving relationships, both of them progress slowly, paying attention to one another while they seek to understand. They don’t speak the same language, and they are not of the same species, but it doesn’t matter much, because affection knows other ways to get to comprehension. And it is about affection when she tries to teach him to fly, or when he, free, answers her call. Gently, the differences between them are overcome at each new stage of development, at each new victory. Until the completion of this cycle of goodwill that, being brief, becomes unforgettable. (English sample translation available)
FELIZES quASE SEMPREEverybody knows that a good fairy tale ends with the princess and her prince charming living happily ever after. But what few people know is what happens or does not happen when the story ends. Antonio Prata and the renowned Brazilian cartoonist Laerte show here, in delicious detail, how this so called perfect life is, and how “happily ever after” can become a big problem. And they prove, with lots of fun, that even in the enchanted world a little unhappiness now and then doesn’t hurt anyone. (English & Spanish translations available).Awards: Finalist of the Jabuti Award 2013 (Children’s Book)
CINCO VEZES CINCO CIPRESTESHe wasn’t a rich man, nor was he a poor man, he was just a man, and this man had a dream. Thus begins the first short story of this book. And thus begin the other four, in a narrative game in which, from the same starting point, we are led through five different paths towards unexpected endings.We’ve always known that a story, any story, is both the seed for other narratives and soil where they grow. Narrating is a continuum in diversity. Driven by this conviction, Marina Colasanti took the creative challenge of touching the sensibility of readers of any age through five stories that, although different, are the same story. In these little literary jewels we are faced with the reunion of dream and destiny, and follow the great symbolic journey of the man that answers his call.
O VERÃO DO CHIbOIn The Summer of Chibo, written in partnership between Vanessa Barbara and Emilio Fraia, a boy no more than seven years old, immersed in a very singular universe, describes his adventures during his summer vacation, in the middle of a corn field in the company of his friends. But this is a different summer. Because Chibo, his older brother, mysteriously disappears, and all the other boys seem to do the same. This is a subtle work, often humorous, other times touching, about the mysteries that surround growing up. It was a finalist in the Prêmio São Paulo de Literatura. (English sample available)“A little gem about the mysteries that surround becoming a grown-up.”O Estado de S. Paulo“Another world in miniature, with lyricism and absurdity to match the fantasies and traumas of childhood.” Folha de S. Paulo
MAIS DE 100 HISTóRIASAs a poet gathers his poems in his Complete Works, so does Marina Colasanti. In this book, she gathers the fairy tales that represent a milestone in her creative trajectory. There are 116 original narratives that, although situated in the realm of the imaginary, exude modernity. Or aren’t love, fear of death, the struggle for power, solidarity and loneliness, greed and compassion, the never-ending search for answers modern?This is not about imitating the past, nor recreating the genre using its key-elements. It’s about plunging into the unconscious and, like the mythical narrators did, harvest the stories that it tells.With verbal economy and refined language, these surprising stories take readers of any age by the hand and lead them, not only to the unexpected ending, but to an emotional meeting with their own self.
uMA AVENTuRA ANIMALFour teenagers meet in the Amazonian city of Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil. Each one of them has reasons to feel lonely and suffer: Anderson is too shy, he hides behind his sketchbook and expresses himself only through drawings; Gabriela is so small that she is taken for a child and mocked by her schoolmates; Gil lost his mother and, when he is not at school, lives almost alone with his skateboard, as his father is always away, working; and Cláudio is isolated, seen as a boring nerd. They discover a gang planning to traffic wild animals illegally in the region, threatening cruelly the life of many species and the ecological balance in that part of the Amazon. They feel responsible for doing something against it, but what can a small group of fourteen year old school kids do? No adult would give any attention to them unless they can prove their accusation. They decide to investigate and collect information and evidence. This leads them to frightening but successful adventures, in which they discover how the facts that make them feel weak in everyday life become superpowers when put together at the service of a worthy cause.
CLASSIFICADOS E NEM TANTO With a body of work that includes prose, poetry, chronicles, short stories and books for children and young people, the author now returns to the children’s universe with a lovely book of poetry for the little ones. “There are people that search the classified ads looking for a well-located apartment, a new car, a dog with a pedigree. But there are people that search for a flying carpet, the key to which they already lost the keyhole, the imaginary friend’s address, the wake of the shooting star. This book is for them”, explains the author.In the classified ads that Grandpa reads in the paper, they sell cat, car, cushion or couch. They sell brush, bicycle, county fair or soda-pop. But, when you have imagination, there are not enough boundaries: in three or four lines we find chilly mermaids, shooting stars, graffiti without walls and even a ripe pineapple.Want Ads and Not So Much gathers 80 little short poems, “nutty”, illustrated by beautiful xylographs by artist Rubem Grilo. If you look for things that are hard to find, you just have to open this book and find whatever your imagination tells you to.Sold to: Spain (El Jinete Azul)
CHILDREN AND YA HIGHLIGHTS 2014THE MAkER OF OLD PEOPLE rodrIGo LAcErdAcosac Naify, 2008
COFFEE wITH MILk & bEANS wITH RICE ALbErto MArtINScompanhia das Letras, 2004
ALL THAT wATER João ANZANELLo cArrAScoZA cosac Naify, 2012
FAMILY DRAFT João ANZANELLo cArrAScoZAdSoP, Abril, 2014
NAkED IN bOOTS ANtoNIo PrAtAcompanhia das Letras, october 2013
ALMOST COMPLETELY HAPPILY EVER AFTER ANtoNIo PrAtAEditora 34, 2012
THE SuMMER OF CHIbO VANESSA bArbArA E EMILIo FrAIAAlfaguara, 2008
A wILD ADVENTuRE MArIA VALÉrIA rEZENdEdSoP, April 2014
MORE OR LESS NORMAL cINtIA MoScoVIchFtd, new edition, April 2014
THE LOST bAG rIcArdo LÍSIASdSoP, April 2014
SEVEN bONES AND A CuRSE roSA AMANdA StrAuSZGlobal, new edition 2013
SHORT STORY OF A TINY LOVE MArINA coLASAtIFtd, 2013
FIVE TIME FIVE CYPRESSES MArINA coLASANtIForthcoming - Global, 2015
MORE THAN A HuNDRED STORIES MArINA coLASANtIForthcoming - Global, 2015
wANT ADS AND NOT SO MuCH MArINA coLASANtI Galera record, 2010
MY AFRICAN PRINCESS MArcIo VASSALo (Abacatte, 2011)
MINHA PRINCESSA AFRICANA“Minha princesa africana” tells a love story made of endless letters and phone calls from across the ocean. “Her name was Marinela. No one believed that my girlfriend was a princess. Some people didn’t even know there were princesses in Africa. But mine was from there, from Angola. Marinela was very white and had more freckles than the sky of Luanda. Actually, we had seen each other only once in our lives, and every day we awaited for the day when we would see each other again. While the day didn’t arrive, Marinela called me every night and we would talk until she had fallen asleep. With her Portuguese accent, the princess would tell me that she could only sleep after hearing my voice. Or was it me that could only sleep after talking in her ear? Oh, my letters to Marinela were even longer than the hours we would spend listening to one another, and the hours we spent listening to one another were longer than the Nile”. With papier maché illustrations by artist Carol W., who has created exclusive pieces for the story, “Minha princesa africana” makes us want to love without haste, but with the deepest urgency to be happy.
PILAR’S DIARY OF GREECE (2010)Pilar loves travelling. Her series of books is well known in Brazil. Now she keeps a diary, describing every moment of her first adventure. She grew up without her dad, in her grandpa’s house. When Pilar’s grandpa goes to Greece and she hears that he is never coming back, she cannot accept it and wishes she could go after him. With a magic hammock, she and her best friend Breno travel to Greece and meet several gods along the way. But life among them isn’t easy and no one will ever be the same after this adventure.
PILAR’S DIARY IN THE AMAZON (2011)On the second book, Pilar travels to the Amazon, searching for her father,an anthropologist that might be lost in the Jungle. There, Pilar and Breno meet Maiara, a local girl who has never seen the sea. During the trip over the Amazon river, they see people cuting trees ilegaly, they scape from a huge snake, they save a baby sloth, meet Iara - the Siren of the river - and arrive to the ocean, where Maiara can finally experience the salty water full of waves.
PILAR’S DIARY IN EGYPT (2012)Pilar enters her magic hammock and travels with Breno and her cat Samba to Egypt, where they will try to help young Tutancamon to get his throne back. They fly together over the desert with a Phoenix, they sail on the Nile river escaping from crocodiles, they meet goddess Isis and god Horus who give them a special help and, most important of all, Pilar claim the right to learn hieroglyphs! Although the school was only for royal family or for boys, Pilar manages to prove that she also deserves to know how to write hieroglyphs.
Flavia’s most famous character is Pilar, a curious girl that loves to travel and discover myths and stories from several different cultures. Pilar has been in adventures in places like Egypt, Greece, Amazonas (Brazil), and Machu Pichu (Peru). Her books have been sold to Germany, France, Latin America and China.
Books from the series:
THE PILAR SERIES FLAVIA LINS E SILVAZahar
A MáquINA Nordestina is a place where no one wants to stay anymore. The only thing that can be counted in this land without future is the void left by those who want to go to the other side of the line, where the world must be happening. And is exactly in this little town - forgotten even by the Lord - that the love between Antônio and Karina happens. With a precise and poetic prose, the author constructs a story capable of stopping time and changing the course of this tale and others that Antônio began to tell after he looked at his Karina, who, by then, had a look of good-bye, and promised: “Is it the world that you want? I’ll bring it to you, then”. “The machine” is a fable about love and time. A love story as big as the world.
MANIA DE EXPLICAÇÃO“Loneliness is an island that longs for the boats”. The sentence, filled with poetry, is one of many that Adriana Falcão has sculpted with sensibility and included in Explanation Freak. The book is dedicated to her nine year old daughter Isabel, who, like all children that age, doesn’t miss the chance of asking “why?” or “what is this?” when something is not clear. And, page after page, Adriana “explains” some words that may be of difficult comprehension for those who are beginning to understand the world. Some examples: “Anguish is a very tight knot right in de middle of your peace” or “Success is when you do what you do well, only everyone notices”.Explanation Freak delights young readers, who lose themselves, literally, in its pages; after all, they are not numbered. And, in this game of coming and going in search of an explanation for some word, children plunge further into the spirit of the book, which is to satiate curiosity. The didacticism of putting the words in alphabetical order did not occur to Adriana Facão, though. “Homesick” comes before “a lot” that comes before “desperation” that comes before “before”.Sold to: Portugal (Vogais & Companhia), Mexico (Fondo de Cultura)Award: Ofelia Fontes Award – The best for children, by the National Foundation of Children and YA Book (2001)
LuNA CLARA & APOLLO ONZEEverything takes place in the region of Northern Folly. This is the story of Luna Clara and Apollo Eleven, but it’s also the story of Henceforth and Adventure, of Unforseen and Bychance, of coincidences and mismatches, of good and bad luck...but it could be your story too. A story of astounding creativity, a simple plot with a sophisticated structure, about love’s comings and goings. “What makes each love story is precisely it’s coincidences, it’s setbacks, loose events, it’s hopes, it’s winds, it’s time. Who knows what would have been of the story of Adventure and Hanceforth, had it happened any other way?” (pg. 251)
MuRuRu NO AMAZONASMururu is a little tree trunk, a boat for just one person, that sails like a loose leaf in the vastness of the Amazon waters. Mururu is the little tree trunk of a young girl that presents herself being just like her name — Andorinha. Dorinha leaves her mother and her floating house to search for her father, but finds Piú instead, a half-indian, a young man that tastes like fruit and smells like earth. Dorinha crosses the junction of the crystal waters of the Rio Negro with the muddy broth of the Solimões and becomes a woman.
Sold to: Serbia (Carabina Knjiga)Awards: João-de-Barro Award, for YA literature (2006), Highly Recommend for Young Adults, by the National Foundation of Children and YA Book (2011).
PILAR’S DIARY OF MACHu PICCHu (April, 2014)Travelling with the magic hammock, Pilar and her friend Breno arrive in Cusco, in Peru, searching for Pilar’s cat named Samba. There, they meet Yma, a beautiful girl which is taken to Machu Picchu to serve the inca Emperor as one of the daughter’s of the sun. To save Yma and the cat, Pilar and Breno enter the Sacred City with no one noticing. There, they witness several sacred rituals and will need a lot of creativity to scape such a guarded fortress hidden in the middle of the forest.
THE MACHINE AdrIANA FALcãoSalamandra, new edition 2013
EXPLANATION FREAk AdrIANA FALcãoSalamandra, new edition 2013
LuNA CLARA & APOLLO ELEVEN AdrIANA FALcãoSalamandra, new edition 2013
MuRuRu IN THE AMAZON FLAVIA LINS E SILVAManati, 2010
