Roger Mello

This beautiful but troubling picture-book from award-winning Brazilian artist Roger Mello examines the subject of child labor. Told from the perspective of a hovering hornet, the tale here involves a young boy working in a charcoal-making yard, and details (in a round-about way) the grim hardships he and his albino friend face. During the course of the book there is a brush fire started by one of the boy's cigarettes, a trip to a steel factory, the arrest (one assumes?) of the albino friend and his mother, and the (possible?) death of the boy, after the hornet stings him...

Originally published as Carvoeirinhos, this is the second of Roger Mello's own picture-books, following upon You Can't Be Too Careful, to be translated into English by Daniel Hahn, for the Brooklyn-based Elsewhere Editions. It is a remarkably difficult book to describe, with a challenging, open-ended narrative, and powerful artwork that is sometimes lovely and sometimes repellent. The text is fractured, jumping about in a way that suggests the hornet's own flight, from place to place, and topic to topic. There's quite a bit of reading between the lines that is required, something that might prove difficult for readers (whether young or old) who lack the cultural context to supply the missing ideas and information. North American children, in particular, might require quite a bit of explanation in order to make anything of the tale here. The artwork is done in collage on some pages, with cut-out paper on others. The spread depicting the fire, with the different colored paper in various flame-like cut-outs, was particularly striking.

I found Charcoal Boys fascinating, and sometimes beautiful, but I'm honestly not sure whether I enjoyed it. I'm also not sure that I'd particularly recommend it, other than to those interested in Mello's work, or in Brazilian children's literature. I recall attending a children's literature conference once, where one of the presenters gave a paper on Mello, and I have had a great interest in his work ever since. That said, even the presenter acknowledged that his books are often more popular with educators and librarians, than with children themselves.… (mais)