This book is a working manual for kindergarten children which presents different activities for them to work with fables. It is divided in three different parts: The first discusses reading itself and the different types of readers as well as the different environments where reading takes place. The second part explains the importance of fables in general and of the present material in particular. Together, these first two parts serves as a general background and justification for the teacher. Finally, the third part presents five different activities in detail. 

Accordingly, the book proposes to investigate what kind of reader the schools should create. It answers by presenting Santaella’s typification of readers, which, differentiates the different relationships between the reader, the world around him and the material that is being read. Accordingly, they can be: a) Meditative, b) Mover, c) Imersive, d) Ubiquitous. 

The meditative reader is one who reads in silence and focuses only in the text (the painting, the music, etc). This reader seeks to understand the words, the structure, the construction of the text and does not shy away to consult the dictionary. The book is but a still element that can be used to enrich his own experiences. 

The mover has its name taken from the movement of people in the big cities since the Industrial Revolution. Accordingly, this reader is amazed by chances and by the different paces that leads him to a continuous changing of focus and attention.  While the meditative reader has no rush, the mover is always in a rush, taking from the book what calls him attention and moving to the next. 

The immersive reader is one who possess the elements of the meditative reader but is also very tuned to the world around him, to his surroundings, and to the ever going changes. This reader is able to comfortably establish new non-linear connections based on his own associations. 

The last type is the ubiquitous reader which is always connected with everybody at the same time. It leads on the one hand to a partial loss of interest of his immediate surroundings but on the other to a higher state of mobility, adaptation and change. The attention of this reader is always partial as he is not at the same time focusing in one thing only and he does not spend too much time in one thing, having an hypermobility. 

After presenting these four models, the authors state they are non-exclusive, there is no hierarchy among them and all of them have strengths and weaknesses. The book defends that the goal of the school is to make the student able to read sometimes from the perspective of each of these four types of readers as each one will produce a different but equally valid reading.

Mentioning Aesop, Phaedrus, and La Fontaine, the book presents a summary and a defense of the use of fables in kindergarten education. Accordingly, the book states that although the classical conception about the goal of fables is to present some moral teaching, it understands they can be transcend this element, serving to  reproduce, deepen or re-signify reality. In this vein, the authors defend that the teaching of fables to kindergarten children allow them to develop an aesthetic sense and at the same time facilitate the resignification of reality.

This book is an initiative of the University of Passo Fundo (Passo Fundo is a municipality in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul) to reach the wider community. The book is part of an ongoing discussion about contemporary readers in general and in particular about how current technology affects the readers or create new ones. There are those who understand that the crescent usage of technology have shortened the attention span of people and even more so of children. The book takes an opposing approach by recognizing these situation as a fact but instead of trying to fight it, seeks to understand it, to recognize the positive elements and to create possibilities to use these elements in favor of a betterment of the capacity to read. 

The first part of the book aims to present this new paradigm for teachers that might have never thought about the consequences of living in a digital and connected world besides a perception that it detracts from the students’ capacity to concentrate. That is a common perception among teachers in Brazil and in the rest of the world. The books presents the ideas in a non-confrontational form as it takes care not to talk about what is right or wrong. This was crafted so that even a teacher who comes from a different paradigm is able to grasp the existence of these four types of reader.  At the very least, they shall pause and think about what positive aspects can come due to the interconnected world. 

The choice of the usage of the fables coupled with the activities comes to illustrate the method as the method comes to justify the choice of activities. The mythological element is but a mean to another end. Sometimes, as in activities five and six, the end is to present a basis for a moral conversation. In these instances, the focus is on friendship and in the recognition of the other and it is safe to assume these were chosen because of their centrality for kindergarten children as they are in a phase of the “discovery of the other”. 

At other times, the end is to learn another thing as is the case of the first activity. The third activity uses the fable as a kickstart for the children to learn about their senses of touch and smell by the means of a story-enriched experience.  Here, the fable’s goal is only to provide an environment for the exploration of sensations. 

The usage of different activities as well as of different media is aimed to children who are used to freely associate and require different stimuli. In this way, the fable is incorporated and re-signified by the children as they intertwine with their other activities. This leads to the vertical instruction and comprehension of the story to be de-emphasized in exchange for a raised awareness of the children towards their own experiences, their previous knowledge and the world they live in. The fables deepen their world while at the same time their world is deepen by the fables.