O marceneiro
By: Bruna Barros
Publisher: Lemos Editorial, Brasil, 2015 (Vår utgave, Snekkeren, Iko-forlaget, Norge, 2024)
Format: Hardback
Building imagination
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 the boy's 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.
At one point, the father leaves his yellow folding ruler on the table, opened in such a way that it might resemble a snake with its mouth open. This awakens the boy: His eyes, that have been squinting, are now wide open, his body language is more vivid and we can see his imagination activated too: he appears to have a conversation with the folding ruler snake.
The boy proceeds to explore the possibilities in the yellow ruler. He turns it into a house, a car, an elephant, a tree...At last he makes a giant whale. The whale starts squirting water, and thus follows a fun sequence where the boy has to swim in this imagination ocean, is saved by his father and together enter the father's now ready-built boat where the folding ruler is turned into a sail.
As mentioned, the main themes for this book are 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.
Barro provides the reader with easy-to-follow visual clues. It's easy to understand that father and son belong together, as they are both wearing the exact same type of bright orange pants. When the boy starts playing, his first creation is the house: something he has seen his father build, or maybe a symbol of their home.? When the imaginary world turns a little scary, we see the father being fully present by how 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, a powerful description of love, family and feeling safe.
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!
