Avozinha-approved Books that Sing
From ‘Na Loja do Mestre André’ to ‘Vai-te Embora, Ó Papão,’ songs Portuguese families have sung for generations. Performed and illustrated by native speaking artists.
Can't wait to share these with my new grandbaby!
Avozinha Fernanda
Shop the collection
Behind the pages
Meet Filipa, an artist behind our Portuguese collection
Every Lufi & Friends book is illustrated by a native speaker of that language, someone who grew up with these songs, stories and culture.
Filipa
Illustrator · Portuguese collection
What snack or drink fueled your creativity for the Portuguese collection?
Even though I’m not big on snacking while working, there’s always an “Água da Pedras” (lemon flavour) which is a natural mineral sparkling water from here, it reminds me of being a child on the hot summer time playing around.
How did you choose the color palette?
I really enjoy nature, so basically all my inspiration for colors, animals, and environments comes from taking breaks from work to go take a walk and surround myself in nature to look at trees, and all the different flowers, colors and shapes,, I also always loved the feel and look of playing around with different mediums, like crayons, pencils and watercolor, so I try to bring those textures to life in everything I do.
Which song was the most fun to illustrate?
I truly love and feel so much joy when illustrating any of the songs, but having to choose one I might go with “Papagaio Loiro”, having the lyrics be about lovers being separated by a river, I chose the Douro river, separating Porto and Gaia as the background, which brought back a feeling of nostalgia from when I lived there while studying to be able to do this same job, now back home.
