Odette de Barros Mott

Odette de Barros Mott (Igarapava, May 24, 1913 – São Paulo, May 21, 1998), Brazilian writer, known for children's fiction. With more than a million copies sold of her more than 60 titles, Odette was one of the precursors of children's literature in Brazil.

Biography Odette de Barros was born in Igarapava, in the countryside of São Paulo state, in 1913. The family moved to the state capital São Paulo when she was a child. Her father, Carlos Rodrigues de Barros, self-taught and a polyglot, inspired her interest in reading and literature. Graduated from the teacher-training course at Instituto de Educação Caetano de Campos (Caetano de Campos Institute of Education) in São Paulo, she worked as an elementary schoolteacher at the Colégio de Santana. At 22 years old, in 1935, she published Tranquilidade (Tranquility), a poetry book, with preface by Correa Junior. At 24 she married Italian-born naturalized Brazilian Leo Mott, and had eight children, among them historian and feminist Maria Lucia de Barros Mott, social psychologist , and anthropologist Luiz Mott. She encouraged her children to love literature from a very early age and wrote stories initially for them, which, with her later work, were published by Brazilian publishers.

She wrote Aventura no País das Nuvens (Adventure in the Country of Clouds), her first children's book, for her children when small. As adolescents they noted the lack of Brazilian books for children and persuaded her to publish; it was published in 1949 by Editora do Brasil. After came Aventura do Escoteiro Bila (Bila the Scout's Adventure) (1964) and A Montanha Partida (The Split Mountain) (1965),

Odette's books had sold one million copies by 1981. She frequently communicated with students and readers, who sent incredibly varied questions to her author, seeing her as a confidant, teacher, and sometimes even as a second mother. Many of her books were translated into other languages, and published in Braille for those with visual impairments.

Awards and honours She won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's literature. Three libraries in the state of São Paulo are named Odette de Barros Mott.

Death Odette wrote and produced books for many years, right until she died, on May 21, 1998 in the São Camilo hospital in São Paulo, aged 84. Her body was cremated at the Vila Alpina Crematorium.

Works

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