YMMV / Sítio do Picapau Amarelo

• Anvilicious: Reforming Nature and The Size Switch had a pacifistic message during World War II with a very heavy-handed approach. The former had a subplot where Mrs. Benta visits a meeting between nations where she makes a speech pleading for peace, while in the latter, Emilia shrinks humanity in size in an attempt to end WWII. Though in its defense, it was written in 1941, at a time Brazil was still neutral before joining the war in 1944 so Lobato may have written that from a neutral's perspective.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: Most Brazilians know the book series from its TV adaptations (especially the ones from Globo), which took a couple of liberties from the source material. For example:
  • The Cuca only appears in some chapters in "O Saci" and is defeated by Pedrinho and the Saci by being trapped in vines while sleeping, while in the series and in the cartoon, she is a recurring antagonist and the closest to the main villain of the franchise.
  • Emilia is universally associated with her colorful portrayal and the orange, red and yellow palette introduced in the series, but in the books she is said to look rather ragged and unelaborate, with older illustrations making her dark-haired and more plain-looking. In "Emília no País da Gramática" (Emília in the Land of Grammar), it is stated that Emília looks like how she is portrayed in each given book/adaptation, basically retconning her description as looking something like a witch.
• Fair for Its Day:
  • Despite the painfully dated language used to describe them, Aunt Anastasia and Uncle Barnabé are never anything other than positively depicted, and despite their position as house staffers, they were very wise and intelligent characters. The same is true to the Saci, who while a trickster and mischievous sprite, befriends Pedrinho throughout The Saci and is presented as good-hearted and knowledgeable on nature, teaching Pedrinho about other beings from folklore and several ways of using the benefits that the wild offers.
  • Being such a headstrong and independent female character, Emilia was quite progressive for the time period she was written. It wouldn't look out of place by today's standards, but it sure was something in 1920.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: As mentioned in the Character page, the Councillor/Talking Donkey doesn't belong to any existing fable (while his character page says he indeed belong to an existing fable), despite being, In-Universe, a former resident from the Land of Fables. Decades later, the Shrek franchise would bring a talking donkey living among several fables.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The books received accusations of stereotyping black people: Aunt Anastasia embodying the Mammy stereotype and Uncle Barnabé veering close to Magical Negro territory. Saci, the most prominent supernatural black character in the series being The Trickster doesn't help either. And to make matters worse, Lobato even makes racist comments when comparing Anastasia with a monkey and defended eugeny in others of his books. It is enough to make many people try to ban their books from Brazilian schools. The research by the University of São Paulo's "Observatório Lobato" discovered that the comments "comparing" Nastácia to a "black-coal monkey" didn't have anything to do with the color: the "Muriqui" monkey is a red haired animal and the author is describing the way she climbs the pole in comparison to the animal, not her looks. On the eugenics topic: as the Observatório explains, Lobato never defended the racial-cleaning eugenics, but only what is today called "public health policies" (vaccination and so on). In "The Black President" (Portuguese Wikisource), he criticizes the racial-cleaning ideas by satirizing the eugenicists as a bunch of petty characters, like the research by the Observatório shows, while showing its main black character as a respectful leader. But since it is a distopy, things end badly...
  • Pedrinho's Hunting deals with Pedrinho engaging in poaching when he pursues a jaguar spotted around the farm. Given that the jaguar has become an endangered species in recent years in Brazil as a result of illegal hunting and as of 2016 only a few hundred remain, it may leave a bad taste in the reader's mouth. This is why the 2001 live-action series changed the story, from trying to kill it into saving it from evil poachers and the book itself acknowledges this, by making the animals rising against the characters and actively attempting to kill they all. Emília saves the day in the end, but the environmental position is clearly against poaching.
  • Certain tales from "Diverse Stories" may come across as very racist to modern audiences. While others, like "A Violeta Orgulhosa", have a clear anti-racist allegory.
  • While the overall message for Reforming Nature and The Size Switch isn't bad on itself, it comes across as very naive when you consider its about World War II (its a children's book, but still) and that it takes a very neutral approach, which became dated not too soon.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Certain entries in the series contain some... Questionable content.
  • Hans Staden is about the real-life German soldier of the same name that endured captivity at the hands of a Brazilian tribe that practiced cannibalism, of which he nearly became a victim.
  • The Minotaur and The Twelve Labors of Hercules feature Greek mythology in its faithful form with many of its unpleasant elements intact (such as the way the Minotaur was conceived). The latter in particular has the kids being exposed to all sorts of cruel and unusual violence such as King Diomedes being fed to his man-eating mares and a very graphic duel between Hercules and Ares.
  • The Size Switch has this premise: Emilia accidentally causes all people in the world to become tiny. That should be funny, no? Well, instead of focusing on the jokes, Lobato shows little people being devoured by animals, drowning or even dying breathless because they can't get out of their huge clothes. You know... for kids!
  • While is not exactly intense for kids, the books had an explicitly what we would call today left-wing view, having several moments of anti-slavery, violence, war, anti-Nazis, anti-dictatorship and how technology would improve the lives of humankind (in one work even telling how the work automatization could free the humans from the need of working to survive and in "O Poço do Visconde", its main character states that the only way to improve a country is by overcoming poverty [making everyone to receive all the riches]).

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