Tapioca Stories

＂Fun to read aloud, as well as offering clever encouragement to think outside the linguistic box.＂--Kirkus Reviews

Marcelo is a curious and inventive boy who has a lot of questions, especially about words and their meanings. His parents provide him with an assortment of explanations, but as Marcelo ventures to further discover these answers, he decides to create his own vocabulary. His family strives to embrace his new, unique language, but confusion soon unfolds, in a particularly unexpected way.

Marcelo, Martello, Marshmallow is a playful reflection about language and its origins. This heartwarming tale poses as a celebration of young creative thinkers, like Marcelo, making sense of the world we live in.

This story, originally published in Brazil in 1976 and titled Marcelo, Martelo, Marmelo, is the cornerstone work by acclaimed children’s book author Ruth Rocha. Ana Matsusaki’s imaginative illustrations immerse readers in the creative mind of Marcelo in the first English edition of this beloved Brazilian children’s book.

Ruth Rocha, an acclaimed Brazilian author, stands at the forefront of the new wave of Brazilian children’s literature. She made her first mark in the literary field in 1967, writing articles for several magazines on education. Her authorial journey took a significant leap in 1976, with the publication of her first book, Palavras, Muitas Palavras. This was soon followed by the beloved classic Marcelo, Martello, Marshmallow, originally titled Marcelo, Martelo, Marmelo in Brazil. In 1998, she received from then Brazil’s President, the Charge to Cultural Merit, among other prestigious literary prizes, such as the Jabuti and the FNLIJ prize. Today, with an impressive portfolio of over 130 published titles, 500 editions, and translations in over 25 languages, Rocha’s enchanting tales have reached and delighted young readers across the globe.

Ana Matsusaki was born in São Paulo and has a degree in graphic design from the Centro Universitário Belas Artes. Since 2015, she’s worked as an illustrator and book designer. In 2019 and again in 2021, her work was selected for inclusion in the Catálogo Iberoamérica Ilustra, which features the most important names working in illustration in the region. Her work has also been selected for the 2021 Biennial of Illustration Bratislava. The Collector of Heads is her debut book, originally published in Brazil and a finalist of the 2021 Jabuti Award. Matsusaki created the visual narrative of the first English edition of the beloved Brazilian children’s book Marcelo, Martelo, Marmelo.

Tal Goldfajn is a linguist, translator, and translator scholar. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Spanish and Portuguese Studies department. Together with her students at UMass Amherst, she founded the Pipa Project initiative for the promotion of translated children’s literature and multilingual storytelling.