Living in a big city, Pedro is very conscious of signs, which just look like lines and funny squiggles to him. But once he goes to school and starts to learn to read, he begins seeing letters in the signs—first an A, then a D. The change in his perception is gradual, but before long he is able to read whole words on the signs. Flat, boldly colored illustrations show the signs as they look to Pedro throughout the story, so that readers can recognize words and then letters along with Pedro in this original take on learning to read. (Ages 5–8)

Young Pedro is curious and amazed by the pictures that he does not understand on the signs, posters and billboards around his home. When he asks his mother about these, she says he will be starting school the next day and he will soon learn to read and understand these fascinating letters and numbers. Slowly, Pedro sees the letters he is learning at school everywhere he looks. Accompanied by whimsical illustrations of his neighborhood and school, Pedro begins to unlock the mysteries of words and gain a taste of independence.

USBBY 2017 Outstanding International Books List, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Choice Selection 2017.

Author is from Brazil.

Brazil. Originally published in Portuguese as O menino que aprenden a ver by Editora Salamandra in 1986. English translation by Lynne Miller-Lachmann published in the United States by Enchanted Lion Books in 2016.

A child who has not yet learned how to read looks out at the world and sees language as such a child would: as lines and squiggles that don't exactly make pictures but don't seem to make anything else either. Then, when the child starts to go to school and begins to learn his letters, his way of seeing begins to change.

Ruth Rocha is Brazil's most popular children's book author. Her first book was published in 1976. She has more than 130 published titles and has been translated into over twenty-five languages.

Madalena Matoso studied Communication Design at Lisbon College of Fine Arts and has a graduate degree from the Fine Arts Faculty in Barcelona. In 1999, she and three friends created Planeta Tangerina.