The taste had been there for a long time and it was like combining the useful with the pleasant. Cláudia Carrilho has always been a reader of children's stories, but, at a certain point, she realized that there was a gap: including, in these books, characters with some disability. With a brother with a rare disease, a real story became (partly) fiction. And so “Noa and the Adventure of listening with the heart” was born.
The book was launched in August last year by Cláudia Carrilho, 32 years old, who tells, in the first person, how the idea came about.
«It was something that had been following me for a long time. There was a day when I thought I really had to pick up some paper and start writing,” she says.
The click appeared in a professional context. Cláudia Carrilho has worked at Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Vila do Bispo for almost nine years and was, for three years, coordinator of the CLDS (Local Social Development Contracts) Dignitate de Vila do Bispo project.
«One of the activities we had was going to schools, whether nurseries or primary schools, and passing on a message of inclusion and citizenship. When I started going to the boys' classrooms, it clicked and I realized the gap: there were schools that didn't have a single book that included characters with disabilities», he says.
It was 2022 and Cláudia's personal story ended up setting the tone for the book. The main characters really exist in the author’s life.
«Bruno is my brother, he is 26 years old and has a rare disease called Duchenne Neuromuscular Dystrophy. Noa is my cousin and the book tells a little about their relationship and the way I look at both of them", he confesses.
This is, therefore, a fictional story, with real characters. «The adventures I tell about didn’t happen», he highlights, between laughs.
«My goal is for the characters to convey a message of inclusion to the little ones, even due to the fact that there is a main character who moves in a wheelchair, but accompanies Noa throughout the adventure, showing that limitations are often only in the our heads", he says.
The fact that this is a story that tells the author a lot only made it “more motivating” to write the book.
Launched about a year ago, Cláudia Carrilho has seen great acceptance from readers.
«Fortunately, the work is being greatly appreciated by people, at least here in the municipality, which is where I immediately have that feedback immediate. They come to me and find it interesting that I took a real story and turned it into a way to reach the little ones,” she says.
Furthermore, Cláudia Carrilho has also been invited to go to some schools to present the book. It is then that the young woman realizes how “children are very receptive”.
«We just need to work on the themes. I feel that the seed has remained: what is interesting now is that schools also take up the issue of inclusion and continue to develop it».
Balancing the writing of the book with work at Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Vila do Bispo, where she currently works as sociocultural animator at Lar de Sagres, was «relatively easy», guarantees Cláudia Carrilho.
«As I already work in the social area, these themes end up being my daily routine and my perspective is now awake both on a personal and professional level. So, everything ends up coming together and being intertwined,” he says.
This is also why Cláudia Carrilho doesn’t want to let Bruno and Noa’s stories “die”.
«I want to write another book: these issues need to be worked on and I want to continue Noa and Bruno's adventures within this world of inclusion», he concludes.
The book, which is published by Cordel d'Prata, has 50 pages and is on sale at Wook, FNAC and Bertrand, costing 14 euros.
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