Selection - FNLIJ

O gênio do crime
Global.
ISBN 8526010476
Sangue fresco
Global.
ISBN 8526003070
O caneco de prata
Global.
ISBN 9788526012998
Crime Genius
O Gênio do Crime (subtitle: Uma História em São Paulo)
is João Carlos Marinho’s first book and has been a
best seller for 40 years (over 1 million copies sold in 62
editions) and is a key reference in Brazilian children’s
and youth literature. Launched in 1969 by Brasiliense
Publishing House, after having been in the hands of
other publishers, it was incorporated to the catalog
of Global, which has published most of its current
62 editions. In 2006, it was published in Spanish
under the title El Génio del Crímen. In 1973, it
was adapted to the movies by director Tito Teijido,
under the title O Detetive Bolacha Contra o Gênio
do Crime.
Writer Laura Sandroni, herself a children’s and youth
literature expert, reports that the book started to be
written in the latter half of 1965, when Marinho, then
an accomplished lawyer in the city of Guarulhos,
state of São Paulo, decided to dedicate his mornings
to children’s literature. The author disclosed how
the story about a group of young soccer sticker
collectors who became detectives and started to
investigate the factory that was faking the stickers
was created. Marinho recalls that he suddenly went
“blank” and shelved the project for nearly a year. In
January 1967, during his vacations, he had an insight
to continue the story. Upon completion, he took the
book to Brasiliense’s editor Caio Graco for publication in
1969. The title would have been, initially, O Crime das
Figurinhas. “But that title was not expressive; it had
no nature of its own; it was mediocre,” he said. And
only in the eve of launching the book did the author
have the idea of baptizing it O Gênio do Crime.
Laura Sandroni reiterated the book’s historical
milestone within the context of children and
young people’s literature renovation which, up until
then, was only assessed by the parameters laid out by
Monteiro Lobato’s work.