MONTEIRO LOBATO CHILDREN'S LIBRARY – SANTA CECÍLIA / SÃO PAULO: CONTRIBUTION TO THE FORMATION OF CHILDREN AND THEIR CITIZENSHIP

Abstract

This paper discusses the historical and contemporary importance of the Monteiro Lobato Children's Library (BIJML), part of São Paulo’s Municipal Children's Library System, emphasizing its role in children's cultural and civic development. It analyzes the building, its urban integration, and the sociocultural context of its creation, linking these aspects to shifts in childhood perception from the 1930s onward. It highlights the contributions of Mário de Andrade and Lenyra Fracarolli, crucial to establishing the library as a space for informal education and democratic cultural access. The theoretical framework draws on authors who address childhood, citizenship, and public space, alongside data on the collection and children's attendance rates. Finally, it reflects on how children's libraries, as public spaces, contribute to fostering citizenship, belonging, and identity formation, stressing the need for both physical and symbolic integration into the urban environment to enhance their social function.