CLAS Book Box K-12 Guide 4: Portuguese and Brazil in PictureBooks

Lesson Plan Resources: Environment & Artistic Connections

The author uses a layering collage style throughout the The Best Tailor in Pinbauê.  Illustrations are composed of torn or cut paper and fabric and layered with drawn embellishments.  These activities allow us to explore the use of color, pattern, and texture to convey meaning and emotion

Find This Book at OSU

The Best Tailor in Pinbauê 

By Eymard Toledo

Seven Stories Press. New York. 2017.

Call Number: 

Other Titles by Eymard Toledo

The Best Tailor in Pinbauê, 2017  (available in English, German, French and Portuguese)

Bené: schneller als das schnellste Huhn, 2013 (available in German and Swedish)

Juju und Jojô: Eine Geschichte aus der Großstadt, 2019 (available in German)

Read Aloud

Author and Illustrator Information

Eymard Toledo was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. At the age of twenty-five she moved to Berlin, Germany, where she completed her studies in industrial design. She still lives there today with her husand and two children. A previous book of hers, Bené, schneller als das schnellste Huhn, was named one of the Most Beautiful German Books 2014 and named a Book of the Month by the German Academy for Children's Literature. The Best Tailor in Pinbauê is her first book to be published in English.  (From book jacket)

Cultural Context

best tailor interior page

Cultural Vocabulary
Portuguese Equivalent English Equivalent
Pescadores Fishermen
Lavandeiras Launderers
Praça Central Central Square
Viralata Stray dog
Cafezinho Coffee
Broa Corn cake

Portuguese Broa photo by Pedro Rebeto

Recipes for Portuguese broa (corn bread) can be found online.

Click HERE for the recipe from Leite’s Culinaria.

Click HERE for the recipe from The Spruce Eats.

 

 

 

As the author states in the postscript, Pinbauê is a fictional village.  However, a Google search for images can help children visualize the setting.  Suggested search terms:

  • Small Brazil villages
  • Small river towns Brazil
  • Minas Gerais

Book Overview

Summary

Set in a small town in Brazil, the story depicts the changes that factories have brought and the resilience of the human spirit.  Uncle Flores sews the dull, gray uniforms for the new local factory with the help of young Edinho. But when the factory outsources the sewing to a -cheaper source, Uncle Flores is left with no job.  Edinho helps Uncle Flores reconnect with his love of sewing and a new source of income through sewing colorful décor and clothing for the town.  This splash of color from the new clothing brings life and joy to the town and Uncle Flores’s business once again thrives and brings the community together.

Age and Grade Level

  • ages 5-8 
  • kindergarten- 3rd grade

 

Prevalent Themes

  • Importance of familial relationships
  • Community
  • The change in traditional life brought on by modernization and industrialization

Notable Quote

“…What is it you actually do?”

“I make clothes, offer a good cafezinho and a nice broa, and I listen to what people have to say.”

“Is that all?”

“That’s all indeed,” said Uncle Flores.

Uncle Flores’s simple statement belies how his business brings joy and life and community to a village whose embrace of the cold, gray factories has made it a posterchild for the unfortunate changes industrialization wreaks on small communities.  While the target audience may not be able to understand this directly, this quote offers segue to talk about the simple things that our family and friends do that have big impacts on our lives and communities.