Reflecting on the formation of readers in basic education is a fundamental premise for the construction of a critical, autonomous and plural education, since from the reading process the individual is able to contest the world and critically discuss his social role. Bearing in mind that children's literature in Brazil has always been schooled and reduced to grammar studies and directed and not very reflective interpretations of texts, the text proposes to address some problems of the teaching of literaturein elementary and high school and to consider new proposals for the teaching and learning of reading. As a theoretical foundation, the article dialogues with issues related to literary literacy discussed by Magda Soares, Marisa Lajolo and Regina Zilberman, among other authors who discuss the school process of reader formation. From this excerpt, the text develops a brief analysis of the children's work Pilar Diary, authored by Fl & aacute;via Lins and illustrated by Joana Penna, in order to point out possible pathsfor a children's literacy based on texts with this format