Abstract:

Children's literature can help promote an understanding of the need to recognize differences as means of revealing their extraordinary richness. The contemporary challenges and threats to the consolidation of respect for human rights are compelling arguments for continuing, with firmness, to look to children's literature to redesign these paths. In the light of the above, this paper, centered on the "Damião, the hurricane mole", by Anna Llenas (2017), seeks to investigate the ways in which the narrative can provide a basis for reflection on empathy as a fundamental path to include Others, as well as to shed light to the itineraries of care inscribed in the peritextual apparatus of this picturebook, fostering the development of socio-emotional competences that generate inclusive and just societies. The theoretical framework of this paper draws from the importance of children's literature in education today, as well as the contribution of literary education to understanding the importance of inclusion, along with increasing the refinement of aesthetic appreciation. The analysis carried out leads us to conclude that this picturebook allows us to explore ways of understanding inclusion in its many facets in a pleasurable way and helps children to adopt positions of active citizenship. Furthermore, the illustrations play a decisive role to increase the possibilities of understanding the multiple paths of care involved in the richness of welcoming Others, instigating critical thinking.

Keywords:

Picturebooks, inclusion, literary education, primary education.