Literary book for children: an analysis from the perspective of the aesthetic education

Abstract

Based on the understanding that literature is art, this paper aims to discuss how children’s books can educate aesthetically. This is a qualitative and bibliographical study that sought to comprehend how the elements present in a children’s book enable the reader’s aesthetic education. Through the analysis of the work Na ponta dos pés, by Adair de Aguiar Neitzel and Maria Lindamir de Aguiar Barros (2021), it is discussed how the physical and poetic structure of the book provoke and affect the reader and educate him/her aesthetically. The analysis of the data used three categories: verbal text, visual text and graphic design. As a theoretical contribution to the discussions about the three elements analyzed, a dialog was constructed with different authors, among them: Schiller (2017), who supports the concept of aesthetic education; Barthes (2004, 2013, 2015) and Eco (1997), who deal with the verbal text; Camargo (1995) and Coelho (2000a, 2000b), who address the visual text; and Cabral (2020) and Moraes (2008), who collaborate with their studies on graphic design. It was concluded that children’s literary books educate aesthetically when they provide an encounter of sensitive and intelligible relationships that affect the reader, modify his/her gaze, awaken meanings and reflections linked to life.