This research holds a point of view about children`s book illustration. It aims at analyzing some illustrators` views concerning one single character, and how this character came to be transfomed through such views. Emília, a rag doll, is the chosen character. As an icon of Brazilian children literature, it helped us to better understand the process of book illustration in this country. It also helped us to understand its author, Monteiro Lobato, himself an acclaimed children`s writer and a key figure in Brazil`s book industry. The research identified other Lobato`s facets, which, in our opinion, respond for his books` fine aesthetics. Actually, the writer acted more like a designer when he chose important artists to illustrate his books. Emília had three moments, as far as illustration is concerned, each carried out by a different artist. Lobato defined them according to Emília`s moment in the story, thereby causing the character`s evolution via visual metaphors. We have selected several Emília`s drawings and some of Lobato`s biographic moments. We, then, made comparisons in order to understand the complex character as we came to know nowadays. This methodology proved fairly adequate to our purposes. We have also observed that Emília`s symbolic values and messages, as presented by both image and text in Lobato`s books, are due to a certain visual heritage and the openess provided by the character`s neologisms and the freedom with which Lobato granted it. All these phases, thus, promote the extremely rich mosaic that makes up both the doll`s and Lobato`s own lives.