Doçura
By: Emilia Nuñez & Anna Cunha
Publisher: Tibi Livros, Brasil, 2022 (Our version, Dulzura, by Diego Pun Ediciones, Spain 2025)
Format: Hardback
A beautiful celebration of reading
"There is no magic formula for creating a reader, but the process can be wonderful". The phrase on the back of the book Doçura gives the reader a clear idea of what this book is all about. The author, Emília Nuñez, calls it a celebration of teachers and mothers that read with their children.
There is something very special about children's books that celebrate reading. Doçura is even more magical because it is wordless. To make a silent book is to trust that the readers will understand your message, parallell with giving the them the freedom to make their own meanings and interpretations. In this way, Doçura (which translates to "Sweetness"), is not only encouraging teaching children to read, it is encouraging creating strong, independent, free-thinking, critical readers, readers that trusts their own judgment.
The book presents two parallell narratives. On the left-hand pages, a baby growing up in the company of strong women, surrounded by love and books. On the right-hand pages, the planting, watering and growth of a tree. As the child, and the love for reading grows, the tree grows. The very last spread is the only full spread, which ties the two stories together: The three generations of women are reading together in a forest of trees.
This book won the 2023 Jabuti Prize, the most important literary award in Brasil. It is extraordinarily beautiful. The color scheme is as gentle and warm as the story: pinks and sunny yellows with blues and greens as soft contrasts. The artists combine the realistic storyline of the women, with the symbolism of the growing tree, its fruits and how it serves as shelter for nature's creatures, in a masterful way. It is a book that feels like a warm embrace, a wonderful inspiration to read to as many children as possible.
