El Barco de Vapor is a children's Spanish editorial collection created in 1978 and published by

Editorial SM Grupo SM is a Spanish language, Spanish publisher with a strong presence in Latin America. It specializes in publishing educational material, fiction for children and teenagers, and religious literature (under the PPC seal). The group has a catalo ...

. In 2019, it was launched Mi Barco de Vapor, customized books to encourage the reading and teamwork on kids. There is an award named after this collection, and in 2019 it was named and is for Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican writers.

Sets

The titles of El Barco de Vapor are grouped by age and reading ability, in different series. So that parents, teachers and children have a clear orientation on the most appropriate readings, the series are ordered by colors.

White Series

The white series is designed for children from 4-6 years old, who are beginning to read. These books contain short lines of text, with large typography, adapted vocabulary and a strong presence of color illustrations, which help to understand the text and favor the aesthetic education of the reader. The novels of the white series usually occupy between 32 and 70 pages.

Blue Series

The blue series is aimed at children who already know how to read (from 7 years). These books are short, have large print and color illustrations, which help to understand the text. The texts of the blue series usually occupy between 64 and 90 pages.

Orange Series

The yellow series of El Barco de Vapor is designed for children from 9 years old or older who dare with longer texts. They are novels with an extension that can exceed 200 pages. The illustrations are in black and white and are staggered throughout the text.

Red Series

The red series is aimed at children from 12 years of age, expert readers who enjoy reading. In these novels, content and form are of equal importance. They can reach 256 pages.

Authors

Some of the most outstanding authors of children's and youth literature have published in the El Barco de Vapor collection, such as Montserrat del Amo,

Fina Casalderrey Fina Casalderrey (born 11 August 1951) is a Spanish writer and educator, considered to be one of the most important writers of Galician children's literature. Life and career She was born in Xeve in Pontevedra and began a career in teaching. ...

, Agustín Fernández Paz,

Laura Gallego Laura may refer to: People * Laura (given name) * Laura, the British code name for the World War I Belgian spy Marthe Cnockaert Places Australia * Laura, Queensland, a town on the Cape York Peninsula * Laura, South Australia * Laura Bay, a bay on ...

, Santiago García-Clairac, Alfredo Gómez Cerdá, Fernando Lalana,

Juan Muñoz Martín ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish language, Spanish and Manx language, Manx versions of ''John (given name), John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronoun ...

Dav Pilkey David "Dav" Murray Pilkey Jr. (; born March 4, 1966) is an American cartoonist, author, and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known as the author and illustrator of the children's book series, ''Captain Underpants'', and the ch ...

, and Jordi Sierra i Fabra. In the more than 30 years that have passed since El Barco de Vapor was born, nearly 45 million copies of the collection have been sold. The best-selling titles are ''Fray Perico y su borrico'', by

, which has sold more than a million copies and has had more than 50 editions, and El ''Pirata Garrapata'', by the same author, which has sold more than 500,000 copies.

References

External links

* Young adult literature Editorial collections Spanish children's literature 20th-century children's literature 21st-century children's literature {{1970s-story-collection-stub