In this book, the author invites readers to reflect on the importance of questioning in order to transform and recreate. A symbol of resilience, Viarco aligns with the belief that it is essential to act as a guardian and promoter of history and cultural identity, while simultaneously giving that heritage a new role: one of questioning and creation.

Credits: Supplied Image;

Because questions – a fundamental ingredient of Philosophy for Children and Young People, a field in which the author has worked for over two decades – lead to dialogue, where everyone has equal space to participate and contribute to the generation of ideas. The iconic blue pencil, once an Olympic standard object, is in fact the pencil of freedom, fostering imagination, critical thinking and creativity.

“It is important that our recent history remain present. Portugal lived under a dictatorship for almost 50 years, and after half a century of democracy, the atmosphere is one of forgetting”, José Vieira, Director of Viarco, explained. “For a 10-year-old child, something that happened in 1974 feels like ancient history, but this is very much a matter of the present.”

“The fact that Viarco has embraced the book’s proposal gives renewed material presence to an expression that has long become idiomatic in the Portuguese language and represents one of the paths contained within our history”, Laurinha Aguiar da Silva continued, adding that it is a privilege that Viarco has partnered with this first edition of “The Blue Pencil”.

“We know that the balance between the rule of law and dictatorship is extremely fragile… (perhaps dictators have always ben elected by people)”, Viarco concluded. “This book brings the subject of censorship to the table, presenting it to new generations and educating them towards free thinking.”

The blue pencil remains an object of resistance, capable of marking any surface. For 48 years, it held the power to target, restrict and erase any record that threatened the values of the Estado Novo regime, censoring thousands of books, newspapers and cultural expressions. Today, it rewrites its own story, transforming the world around it through creativity.

As there can be no good synthesis without good analysis, the Viarco blue pencil – which inspired the work – is now travelling through libraries, bookshops and other cultural spaces alongside “The Blue Pencil”, inviting children (and adults too, why not?) to write, draw and awaken invention and their reinvention of ideas. Together, they will continue their journey through school and municipal libraries and other cultural venues.