Children's Literature and the Promotion of Environmental Ethics in Portugal

Children’s literature frequently offers the young reader a happy and pleasant picture of the world around them, where solutions to simple and complex problems come easily, frequently by magical intervention – which, in some cases, may not be the best way to promote children’s knowledge and perception of the world, and their attitude towards. Combining a literary and a linguistic approach, this text will present some examples of how ecoliteracy may be advocated and opposed through the analysis of several recent narratives addressed to children, in particular the configuration of human actions, problems, consequences and solutions associated with the natural environment.