Portuguese / Brazil
Donana e Titonho. Um conto
(Donana and Titonho. A story)
Parreiras, Ninfa
(text)
Neves, André
(illus.)
São Paulo: Paulinas, 2018. – [40] p.
(Series: Espaço Aberto)
ISBN 978-85-356-4395-4
Picture book | Poverty | Dignity | Social disparity | Garbage | Garbage collector
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2020
“Collecting and picking up. Keeping and keeping quiet.” These two brief sentences concisely describe Donana and Titonho’s existence. The couple, who keep their heads above water by collecting and re-using garbage, are spending their whole life together. Their work carries a stigma of shame, poverty, and misery that one can scarcely escape and that is passed on from generation to generation. Dona and Titonho, their children and children’s children represent those who are ignored and live at the margins of society, yet whose dignity can still not be taken away. Ninfa Parreiras tells this story in dense, lyrical prose. Short, partly fragmentary sentences, or single words align themselves in sequence. Read aloud, they carry a rhythmic flow like a chant. André Neves’s illustrations include photo cut-outs to accompany the powerful text. The pictures express the characters’ melancholy in a striking way. [JW]