Houses and Backyards: Telling Stories through Lived Spaces in Two Portuguese Picturebooks

Abstract

Houses and their surrounding spaces, such as gardens and backyards, are often chosen as the scenario for picturebooks, especially when family and daily life routines are depicted. In an attempt to improve reader identification as well as immediate recognition, the representation of the home is usually quite stereotypical. Indeed, despite cultural and social differences, most illustrations of houses and backyards look identical, emerging as crystallised set-ups. Nevertheless, in some cases, houses can become the protagonists of interesting narratives, namely by the means of personification or animation, either by presenting themselves as living beings or, in a more complex narrative process, by displaying the passage of time and making changes visible. In Portuguese picturebooks, there are examples of different portrayals of houses with different kinds of protagonism. This article intends to analyse two picturebooks –  O livro dos quintais [The book of backyards] (2010) by Isabel Minhós Martins with illustrations by Bernardo Carvalho; and Onde moram as casas [Where the houses live] (2011) by Carla Maia de Almeida with illustrations by Alexandre Esgaio – in order to identify the central narrative role of houses in narratives aimed at children.