Nani Brunini’s Positive “Disagreement”
Brazilian Author Nani Brunini came all the way from Lisbon, where she currently resides, to visit with our 3rd Graders, and read from her beautifully illustrated and timely children’s book Discórdia. Disagreement, in the English translation, is a wordless book, a visual narrative of an epic argument that devolves into a shouting match. Inspired by political events around the world, the book represents the polarization of opinions and absence of effort to reach common ground, and how a lack of understanding and sense of compromise affect us as people. It is only through creativity and humanism that the characters in the book escape the discord, and finally reach a harmonious path toward understanding. This book artfully illustrates the toll of conflict and the magic that can occur when one takes a step back from the noise.
Nani spoke about how disagreement happens all the time, and is often necessary to help us learn. She said, “The world is weird! If we agreed on everything, the world would be boring, but what is important is how we disagree.” She told students that for her illustrations of an epic argument she chose to represent each side as orange and blue, because they are her favorite colors, but also because they are opposite colors, complimentary colors on the color wheel that make each other pop. One student pointed out, “those are also our school colors!” Nani’s presentation really struck a chord with our 3rd Graders, who are currently working on their PYP “Power of Persuasion” unit, as she guided the class in a group drawing activity, a simulated disagreement, during which they found harmony through their own creativity and imaginative powers!
