Mello and His Precursors: Invisible Threads

This essay examines the work of Brazilian illustrator Roger Mello by placing it in dialog with the literary tradition, the artistic environment, and the historical circumstances that have contributed to shape it, from Mello’s childhood in Brasília during the Brazilian dictatorship—in a time when children’s literature thrived as one of the few freely circulating means of expression— to the recent announcement that he is the winner of the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Illustrator Award.