Maria Campinas, the girl who came from the stars

Manuela Vieira (wrote) – Paulo Henriques (illustrated)

Age: +9

ISBN: 978-989-35637-3-1 Language: Portuguese, Binding: Softcover (with flaps) Pages: 120 Thematic classification: Books in Portuguese > Children and Young Adults > Adventure Books > Young Adults

My name is Manuela Vieira, I’m a mother and a grandmother. I was born in Angola, the daughter of Cape Verdeans. I grew up listening to morna, to Creole, to the smell of the earth wet by heavy rains and eating mango, curled up in one of the trunks of the mango tree. Ever since I was a child, I was interested in education. It scared me to see some students being mistreated. Very early on, I got angry with the God of religions and was concerned with finding him in order to understand his justice. I liked to read and write compositions in Portuguese. Above all, I talked about people and the need to be happy. Some moments in which I felt nostalgic for some of Florbela Espanca’s poems have remained etched in my memory. I witnessed the great political change in Angola and came to Portugal when I was fourteen. After completing secondary school, in search of specialized gymnastics training, I left for the former USSR, where I graduated in Physical Education and Sport from the Central University of Physical Culture in Moscow/equivalence from the Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education at the University of Porto. Today, my passion for education is still burning. Not just formal education through books, but, above all, character education