This dissertation investigates the textual and imagistic writing of Brazilian author and illustrator Roger Mello. The work attempts to identify and discuss the forms of aesthetic experimentation which, in Mello s literature, capitalize on the slippery, ever-shifting meanings of words and images. It also examines how Mello s production blurs the boundaries between real and imaginary, past and present. To achieve such goals, the study turns to five of the author s more than 100 published works: Todo cuidado é pouco (You Can t Be Too Careful ) (1999), Meninos do Mangue (Mangrove Children) (2001), Zubair e os labirintos (Zubair and the Labyrinths) (2007), Contradança (Counter-dance) (2011) and João por um fio (João by a Thread) (2012). The corpus provides answers to the overarching question guiding this study, namely, how does Roger Mello s literature magnify readers experiences with verbal-visual language, suggesting new affects for children and young people? The analysis reveals that the author, in his search for contemporary forms of storytelling with which to narrate a range of different childhoods, artfully instills tension into language itself. The dissertation looks into the relationship between Roger Mello s narratives and the unsteady terrain of childhood, where things of the world are freed from rigid spatial, temporal and definitional meanings.