Livros perigosos para garotos e maravilhosos para meninas: O gênero social diferenciando o gênero discursivo

self-help books are a discourse genre in proliferation in the contemporary world, and titles target children with counselling, suggestion for activities and behaviour; informative texts can also fit in it. among these books are works addressing separately boys and girls, such as 'o maravilhoso livro das meninas' and 'o livro perigoso para garotos'. although these works have similar structures, they differ in relation to the cultural representations of the intended reader: boys or girls. in this respect, this study aims at contrasting these works by identifying distinctive marks in them that gender, as a sex-related social category, affects this particular discourse genre. studies of social gender and studies of discourse genres ground the analysis. it follows that there is a dichotomy of themes as far as how-to teaching in informative text themes is concerned as well as in recommendations of books and films.