Argentina (together with Brazil and Venezuela) is the most important country for the
production of children’s literature, thanks to the tradition established by Jacobo Peuser
and Guillermo Craft, who started the first specialised collections, and Atlántida, Sigmar,
Kapelusz, Codex (the first national publishing house), Sudamericana, Difusión, Fausto,
Orión, Plus Ultra, Guadalupe and others.
There was a time when Argentina benefited from the contribution of a number of
important Spanish publishers who took refuge in this country during the Spanish civil
war of 1936–1939. Aguilar, Espasa Calpe, Losada, Pedro García (Ateneo), and others
moved their businesses to Buenos Aires and their know-how was an important addition
to the trade,
Since the 1970s, other publishers have appeared in the form of cooperatives— not so
powerful as the great houses but noteworthy for the aggressiveness of their projects.
Colíhue and Libros del Quirquincho have published works by Laura Devetach, Gustavo
Roldán, Ricardo Mariño, Ana María Ramb, Graciela Montes, Ema Wolf, Elsa Bonnerman,
and others who were previously unable to publish for political or economic reasons.
Great names of the past have also been revived, such as the remarkable narrator José
Murillo, the singer of the hills of Jujuy.
This healthy situation is sustained by more than twenty specialist bookshops, and a
number of libraries and reading rooms that facilitate the access by children to works
written for them.
BrazilFolklore has been an excellent source of inspiration for writers, with roots in the
Portuguese, African and indigenous traditions. Up to the second half of the nineteenth
century the lore was transmitted within the family circle by the Portuguese granny
figure. Celso de Magalhaes, José de Alençar, Pereira da Costa, and General Couto de
Magalhaes were among the first writers who collected these tales, but the credit for
putting them into the hands of children must go to Alexina de Magalhaes Pinto (1870–
1921), professor and musician. She was an assiduous collaborator in the Almanaque
Brasileiro Garnier, conducted research on children’s games and toys, and published a
list of recreational books, ‘Esboço provisório de una biblioteca infantil’, which was
included in her book Proverbios, máximas e observaçoes usuais. She also published
many writings based on her experiences, rejected spelling primers, and experimented
with a process that was later called the global method of teaching letters.
At this early stage, important folklore figures included the one-legged Saci, who wears
a red cap and has an ever-smoking pipe, immortalised in the book O Saci by Monteiro
Lobato (1882–1948), an author who is considered a classic and an innovator in the art
of writing for children.
The year 1822 was crucial for Brazilian culture. The Portuguese royal family left
Lisbon for Rio de Janeiro, with its retinue of servants and noble followers, and this
brought about the import of many previously banned books. Don Joao IV launched the
National Library and the Royal Printing House and children were soon reading stories by
the Grimms, Perrault, Andersen, Verne, Amicis, Salgari, the Countess of Ségur, and
other classics. These, however, did not meet the demand. A few publishers issued
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