Portuguese / Portugal
A construção do mundo
(The construction of the world)
Monteiro, Fábio
(text)
Rio, Mariana
(illus.)
Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, 2018. – [32] p.
(Series: Álbuns)
ISBN 978-972-24-1886-7
World | Creation | Profession | Worker | Father | Son | Picture book
Reading age: 6+
White Ravens issue: 2019
A child describes his father’s unusual profession. While other children’s parents are doctors or engineers, his father leaves the house early morning every day to help with the construction of the world. His task is to use a crane to hang the clouds in the sky, while a friend’s father, in a similarly important role, turns the faucets that fill the rivers and seas with water. “A construção do mundo” is an original and rather quirky picture book. It combines everyday life and work life with a story of the world’s creation in such an imaginative, self-assured way that readers do not doubt the child narrator’s reliability. Fábio Monteiro’s story also can be read another way, though: not only as an alternative creation story, but as praise for the so frequently underappreciated manual professions. The poetic, inventive text is paired with bold and brightly coloured pictures by Mariana Rio, which capture the idea of the world as an eternal construction site in a charming way.