Technical specs
Original title: Os figos são para quem passa
48 pages / 195 x 220 mm
ISBN: 9789898145710 / RRP: 12,90€
1st edition: March 2016
© Rights sold: Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified)
Figs are for passers-by
(Portuguese edition)
At the beginning of the world (back when everyone walked around without any possessions), a bear stops next to a fig tree with his mind set on eating his favourite fruit.
The bear studies the branches and sees that hidden among the leaves, still yet to ripen, there is only one fig left on the tree.
“How long will it take for this fig to ripen?”, the bear wonders. “Surely no more than a day.”
And so the bear sits, confidently waiting for the fig to become soft and sweet – just ready to eat.
But around the fig tree many adventures await him… Who are the figs for anyway? Are they for passers-by? For those that sit and guard them? For the strongest? For the fastest? Or are they for those with the biggest appetites?
A story of suspense and humor that will capture the readers’ attention (even those who don’t like figs…).
Technical specs
Original title: Os figos são para quem passa
48 pages / 195 x 220 mm
ISBN: 9789898145710 / RRP: 12,90€
1st edition: March 2016
© Rights sold: Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified)
Awards and recognitions
Recommended — National Reading Plan (Portugal)
Selected – “Best children’s books of the year”, Observador newspaper, 27/12/2016
What they say
A discussion which is really about a world better than the one we live in, (…) a world in which the notion of seasonal fruit still exists and seeds haven’t been patented by companies. And yes, a world in which the borders between what’s mine and yours (be that a fig, be it a country) are rendered senseless – but that’s an issue for adults to discuss. For now, may children enjoy the delights of this book illustrated with simple cut-outs, where animals live in harmony with one another.
Gabriela Lourenço, Visão magazine, 26/05/2016
In this ode to nature – and above all to sharing -, written by João Gomes de Abreu and illustrated by Bernardo P. Carvalho, we’re thrust into a colourful forest full of nooks and crannies amongst the leaves which shroud it.
Pedro Miguel Silva, Deus me Livro blog, 13/10/2016
The patenting of agricultural products which were always “free” and “natural”, the privatisation of water, the re-establishment of impenetrable borders, the hierarchisation of importance according to power (economic, military, social), and the cultural relativisation of ethical values which (…) should be clear – these are just some of the issues thrown up in the storm of the present moment. Some critical distance and fictional mechanisms, however simple (without being simplistic) become extremely useful here.
What do these issues have to do with the story of a hungry bear who settles down by a fig tree, waiting to eat the ripening fruit? Everything.
Pedro Moura, LER BD blog, April 2016