Abstract:

The central role of books in early childhood education and primary education is widely recognized, due to the ways in which they welcome children and give them access to paths of curiosity and imagination, promoting critical thinking. Aspects relating to the materiality of the book have become increasingly important, given the growing investment by publishers in high-quality aesthetic objects that make reading more appealing. Picturebooks are gaining relevance in this context, given the metamorphoses they are increasingly undergoing, fostering plural readings that echo multiple realities to be rediscovered by readers.

This paper, taking as its raw material the picturebooks "Little sheep give me wool", by Isabel Minhós Martins and "My incredible knitting nana", by Rowena Blyth, seeks to investigate the role of peritexts in the construction of a multifaceted network of affections that can promote the cultivation of kindness and analyze the ways in which dialogues instigated by the text/image interconnection can support shared reading practices that increase the pleasure of reading, along paths that shelter children's aesthetic sensibility. In order to fulfil these goals, the theoretical framework of this paper draws from specialized literature focused on the current relevance of the picturebook in education and the unusual characteristics it brings together, as well as curricular guidelines for primary education in Portugal. In addition, the contribution of international reports that focus on education for global citizenship is considered, in order to increase the understanding of the didactic paths suggested and to provide tools for thinking about the role picturebooks play for its implementation and development.

The analysis carried out allow us to infer that both picturebooks provide ample material for exploring reading paths that can contribute greatly to building educational practices that are nourished by welcoming Others, as the guiding principle for responsible and active citizenship futures. The poetic nature of these picturebooks, coupled with the chords of tenderness that reverberate through them, could become one of the veins of such an axis, and hopefully nurture the cultivation of kindness. Providing pre-service and in-service teachers with the means to select picturebooks that bring together aesthetic enhancement and themes that promote it should therefore continue to be one of the fundamental objectives of their training, which is constantly changing in the face of the unexpected and growing challenges of today's society.

Keywords:

Picturebooks, early childhood education, primary education, global citizenship education.