Pedro Bandeira: O Melhor Presente

 I expected this to be a light and fluffy children's book, and to have little to say about it other than congratulating myself on finishing a book in Portuguese.  I should have known, based on the author's reputation and the depth of the fellow who recommended him to me, that there would be more.  A typical children's book, in the Western canon at least, would have ended the story with a satisfactory conclusion that left all the characters feeling good and having learned an important lesson.  Usually the characters and situations are simply tools in the author's box, and are put neatly back after having had their adventure.  

 Bandeira, however, seems to care little about the characters.  They are fictional, and their growth is meaningless.  He takes aim directly at the reader, and delivers lesson to them so stern and bleak that one wonders if he meant for children to read this book at all.  Children are, after all, only marginally capable of internalizing and making meaningful changes in the way they consume.  Adults, however, can easily imagine the possibility of Earth becoming a garbage dump filled with trash, and could even  take steps to prevent it.