O marceneiro
By: Bruna Barros
Publisher: Lemos Editorial, Brasil, 2015 (Vår utgave, Snekkeren, Iko-forlaget, Norge, 2024
Format: Hardback
So much fun in a folding ruler!
With O Marceneiro, illustrator Bruna Barro opens with well-known silent book start: The bored or ignored child that uses it's imagination to feel better. In the first spread, we meet the protagonist, a small boy wearing orange pants, staring into a phone. We are introduced to his father in the next spread. He is deeply focused on his work, and from the looks of it, he is planning to build a boat. Father and son operates on separate sides of the gutter, not really noticing what the other is doing.
Then the father leaves his yellow folding ruler on the table, in such a way that the end of it looks like a mouth. This awakens the boy: His eyes, that have been squinting, are now wide open, his body language is active and we can see his imagination activated too, as he appears to have a conversation with the folding ruler snake.
The boy now studies the folding ruler, and turns it into a house, a car, an elephant, a tree...At last he has made a giant whale. The whale starts squirting water, and thus follows a fun sequence where the boy has to swim in this imagination ocean, his father saves him, they enter the fater's now ready-built boat and the folding ruler is turned into a sail.
As mentioned, the main motivs for this book is not new: "Child being ignored" and "Child's imagination turns everyday object into something else/brings his or hers surrondings to life" is seen in lots of silent books. But Barro has made a visual landscape that is cohesent and interesting. The white background offers plenty of room for the reader´s imagination. The restricted use of color is very effective, making every detail pop, like the structure of the wood in the boat, how the water droplets and how the water droplets are different shades of blue.
The way Barro describes the relationship between father and son is very effective. It is easy to understand that they belong together, they are both wearing the exact same type of bright orange pants. When the boy starts playing, the first things he turns the folding ruler into is a house, probably something he has seen his father build, or maybe a symbol of their home. When imagination gets too strong and a little scary, the father is there, with his whole body and energy fully focused on his child, helping him find a safe harbour and joining the play. The last full spread shows them sitting in the boat together, the father with his arm around his son.
The text on the back cover states that this is a book to experience with your eyes, heart and imagination. A great instruction for reading a silent book!
