Alguns contributos para o estudo dos livros de conceitos: a colecção «Foxi & Meg» e os «Atividários», de André Letria

Abstract

Contrary to what happens in other countries, the publication of concept books in Portugal has been relatively sporadic. However, some obviously innovative and creative examples have appeared in recent years. For the most part, these are books by young illustrators most of whom, nonetheless, already having a commendable work in the field of picturebook design. There has yet been no study that articulates a theoretical reflection concerning the significance of the interaction between images and words in these books. Accordingly, taking as a starting point two sets of books by the illustrator André Letria (winner of several awards, such as the Portuguese Illustration Award, Silver and Bronze medals in the 3×3 Children’s Books Annual, and an Award of Excellence for Illustration from the Society for News Design (USA)), this paper aims to conceptualise, as well as question, the kind of literary-didactic blend that may be observed in concept books. To this end, it will focus on four books in the «Foxi and Meg» collection (2004), written and illustrated by the previously referred artist, as well as three other books, two of them written by Ricardo Henriques - O Mar [The Sea] (2012), which won a NonFiction mention in the 2014 Bologna Ragazzi Awards, and O Teatro [The Theatre] (2015) – and another one by Inês Fonseca Santos: Dança [Dance] (2022). This paper will address the composition of (these) concept books and their different kinds of picture and word combinations, a composition which results in distinct hybrid objects which may be identified with either literary formative books or didactic formative books.