Monteiro Lobato

Monteiro Lobato, the most important Portuguese-language writer of books for children, was born in Taubaté.

Lobato is best known for a set of educational 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, was less popular but marked a watershed in Brazilian literature. Most of his children books were set in the Sítio do Picapau Amarelo ("Yellow Woodpecker Ranch"), a small farm in the countryside, and featured the elderly ranch owner Dona Benta, her grandchildren Narizinho ("Little Nose") and Pedrinho ("Pete") and the colored servant and cook Tia Nastácia ("Aunt Nastácia"). These real characters were complemented by entities created or animated by the children's imagination: the irreverent ragdoll Emília and the aristocratic corncob puppet Viscount of Sabugosa, the pig Rabicó and the rhinoceros Quindim, Saci Pererê (a black, pipe-smoking, one-legged character of Brazilian folklore) and Cuca (a evil monster invoked by Brazilian mothers at night to convince their kids to go to bed). 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 make-believe play, punctuated by routine farm events.