Representations of Reading in Brazilian Contemporary Children’s Literature

Abstract

This article is part of a broader study that aims at comparing the role assigned to reading in terms of fictional creation for children and youngsters in Brazil and Argentina from 1991 to 2012. The results here presented are exclusively referring to Brazil. A sample of 10 books taken from publishers catalogues who print child/youth literature was analyzed. Based on Serge Moscovici’s concept of social representation it was possible to demonstrate that less than half of the narratives represent the daily reading still linked to a pedagogizing concept of the child genre, with openly utilitarian purposes. However, a significant number of narratives show good aesthetic level, presenting reading and the formation of readers in a thought-provoking and problematizing way.