Monteiro Lobato

Jos Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato was born in Taubat, So Paulo on April 18, 1882. He died on July 4, 1948. He is best known for a set of education but entertaining children's books, which comprise about half of his production. The other half, consisting of a number of novels and short tales for adult readers. At one time when the Brazilian books were published in Paris and Lisbon, Monteiro Lobato also became editor, going to edit books in Brazil too.

 This remarkable writer is well known among children, because he devoted himself to a style of writing in simple language where reality and fantasy are side by side. You could say he was the precursor of children's literature in Brazil.

 Most of his children books were set in the Stio do Picapau Amarelo ("Yellow Woodpecker Farm), a small farm in the countryside, and featured the elderly ranch owner Dona Benta, her two grandchildren a girl, Lcia who is always referred to only by her nickname, Narizinho and a boy, Pedrinho and a black servant and cook, Tia Nastcia. These real characters were complemented by entities created or animated by the children's imagination: the irreverent rag doll Emlia and the aristocratic and learned puppet made of corncob Visconde de Sabugosa, the cow Mocha, the donkey Conselheiro, the pig Rabic and the rhinoceros Quindim, Saci Perer and Cuca. However the adventures mostly develop elsewhere: either in fantasy worlds invented by the children, or in stories told by Dona Benta in evening sessions. These three universes are deftly intertwined so that the stories or myths told by the grandmother naturally become the setting for makebelieve play, punctuated by routine farm events.

 Outside this great success, Monteiro Lobato wrote several children's books, adult books, collections. However O Stio do Picapau Amarelo will be remembered by us and for many generations that will come.