WHILE YOUR WOLF DOESN'T COME: HUMAN FORMATION IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Abstract

The present work is developed as a bibliographical and documentary research whose theme is literature in early childhood education as an alternative for the training of critical and reflective readers. Often times, when we talk about literature, it is immediately associated with it as a tool to aid in reading, writing to understand content or as a way of teaching moral codes. This work aims to reflect on the way in which children's literature has been worked at school. The problem question that guides the text is: how can children's literature in the early years of early childhood education contribute to the development of readers? The article discusses, based on the contributions of Candido (1972-2004), the functions of literature in the formation of the human being; with Lajolo (1993) reinforces the importance of literature in training readers at school. We analyzed the book While Your Wolf Does Not Come, by Guimarães (2020). With Perrotti (1986) and Coelho (2000) we discuss the utilitarianism and moralization of children's literature, defending it as the art of words.