National Children's Book Day is celebrated annually on April 18th

O April 18th was instituted as the National Children's Book Day, in honor of the Monteiro Lobato who was one of the greatest authors of Brazilian children's literature.

The Week of the Book aims to awaken the interest of the community in reading, mainly encouraging young people. O April 18th was chosen as National Children's Book Day for being the date of birth of Monteiro Lobato

Born in Taubaté, in the interior of São Paulo, on April 18, 1882, he began his career writing short stories for student newspapers. In 1904, he won the literary competition at the Centro Acadêmico XI de Agosto, when he was attending law school.

As he lived a period of his life on farms, his greatest successes made references to life on a farm, so he created Jeca Tatu, a very lazy hillbilly.

Then he created the story “A Menina do Nariz Arrebitado”, which was a great success.

Following these successes, he created the greatest work in children's literature: Sítio do Pica Pau Amarelo, which due to its great success, it was turned into a television work in the eighties, being re-recorded at the end of the years. ninety.

Among its main characters are:

• Aunt Nastasia;
• Pedrinho;
• Little nose;
• Emily;
• Viscount;
• Lady Benta;
• Cuca.

In his works, Monteiro Lobato rescued the image of the man from the countryside, introducing characters from Brazilian folklore, such as Saci Pererê, a one-legged black boy; Cuca, a very mean female alligator; and others. He also enriched his works with Greek mythology, as well as characters from the movies (Walt Disney) and comic books.

In fact, through his intelligence, he showed children how it is possible to learn through play.

With the release of the book “Emília no País da Grammática” in 1934, he showed subjects such as adjectives, nouns, syllables, pronouns, verbs and many others. In addition to this, he also created Arithmética da Emília, in 1935, with the same intentions, but with the games taking place in an orchard.

Monteiro Lobato died on July 4, 1948, at the age of 66, in 2002 a law was created (10,402 / 02) that registered his birth as the official date of children's literature.

“A country is made with men and with books”.

This sentence created by him demonstrates the value he gave to reading and his strong influence in the literary world.

Activities for the National Children's Book Day

To work that day in the classroom, teachers can work in the following way:

• Produce texts (Individually or collectively) - Book Day Text Production Activities
• Drawings to color; – Coloring pages of Sítio do Pica Pau Amarelo
• Making souvenirs with students; – Gift Book Day on EVA
• Making of murals and panels in the classroom; – Book Day Mural
• Theater about some important work of children's literature;
• Conversation Wheel;
• Plays and Dynamics; – Book Day games
• And much more.

Other ideas at: Children's Book Day

National Children's Book Day – Sentences by Monteiro Lobato

• Who barely reads, barely hears, barely speaks, barely sees.
• A country is made with men and books.
• The children saved me. From writing to them so much, I simplified myself.
• Everything comes from dreams. First we dream then we do.
• Whoever writes a book creates a castle, whoever reads it lives in it.