About ME
I am a children’s picture book author and enthusiast, a professional linguist, and a proud father and husband in a multicultural household. I was born in Brazil and left my home country at age 25. After living in Germany and in The Netherlands for a couple of years, I moved to Iowa (USA) to do my Ph.D. in Linguistics and decided to settle down here. I love the MIdwest and all the quiet secrets it has to offer.
I wrote my very first children’s book, Dylan’s Birthday Present, in 2020, as a gift to my son, who was only 4 years old at the time. After writing and creating eight self-published children’s books, my breakthrough in the picture book world came in 2022, when my eighth book, My Dad, My Rock, received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, was selected as a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2022, and started being acquired by publishers in other countries and translated into several languages. In early 2023, Scribble (an imprint of the Australian publisher Scribe) decided to acquire world English rights to My Dad, My Rock and re-publish it in spring 2024 under the Scribble imprint.
My ninth book, What Makes Us Human, was selected for the dPICTUS Unpublished Picture Book Showcase 4, for the prestigious White Ravens 2023 catalogue, and for a special exhibition during the 2023 Bologna Children’s Book Fair called Beauty and the World: The New Non-fiction Picture Book. UNESCO decided to make the book an official children’s book for the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages and Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, one of my favorite publishers, bought English rights to the book in North America and the UK. Rights to the book have now been sold into over 20 languages, with many of the foreign editions being co-published with UNESCO. Foreign rights to my books, including Before I Forget (my latest book), are represented by Syllabes Agency.
I absolutely love writing, reading, and studying picture books and I strongly believe they can change the world. Although I have by now spent literally thousands of hours studying the craft of writing high-quality picture books, reading picture books, and studying picture books, I am still only at the beginning of my picture-book journey and can hardly wait for what is still to come. I like to write on topics I deeply care about and that shed some light on what makes us tick.
I look forward to continuing to write and create picture books that will touch hearts and engage minds, both young and older.
MY PICTURE-BOOKING Q&A (always in progress)
Q: What are three picture books that have had a huge influence on me as a picture book author and creator, and that I would choose to have with me if I was stranded on a deserted island for months?
– ‘The Night Gardener’ by The Fan Brothers
– ‘Nothing in Common’, written by Kate Hoefler / illustrated by Corinna Luyken
– ‘The Forest’, written by Riccardo Bozzi / illustrated by Violeta Lopiz & Valerio Vidali
Q: Who is an illustrator I really admire and that I would love to collaborate with one day?
Q: What are four publishing houses whose catalogue and taste I admire and that I would love to have one of my books published by one day? (list cannot include publishers that I really admire but that have already published one of my books):
– Kite Edizioni (Italy)
– Thule Ediciones (Spain)
– Éditions du Rouergue (France)
– Signatura (Romania)
Q: Do I have any routines to bring me inspiration when writing?
Yes, basically two. The first is listening to a song that happens to fully match the mood of the manuscript I am working on, which can significantly speed up my creation process. The second is swimming breaststroke in a warm, long pool.
Q: What is in my opinion the best analogy for good picture-booking?
Good music-making, and how a song’s lyrics and music must work hand in hand to produce an amazing result, just like the text and illustrations in a picture book.
Q: Do I collect picture books myself?
Yes, I do have a personal picture book collection. I keep a spreadsheet where I review and give a grade (out of 10) to every single picture book I read. If I give a book a grade of 9 or higher I then buy a copy of it and add it to my personal picture book library. Right now, there are 73 books in that library and I hope to leave this library collection as a gift to my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and so on. I naturally have many more picture books around the home since I have small children, buy books for research purposes, etc, but only the ones above are part of my personal library.