The big buzz in the publishing industry right now is The Secret Garden: Coloring Book and Treasure Hunt, by British author Johanna Basford, released in Brazil by Sextant at the end of last year. The book was the third best-seller in the country in March – more than 22,000 copies in total, 14,000 only in the last week of the month.

The success here follows the numbers registered in other countries: on Amazon, The Secret Garden is the best seller in the books category; on Amazon Canada, only lost the first place to Enchanted Forest, by the same author. And even the South Korean version of the book topped the list of bestsellers throughout the month of January, according to the Korea Publishers Society. Several publishers, especially in Europe, have bet on the genre.

The English Michael O’Mara Books began publishing coloring books in 2012, but it was last year that saw the fashion caught, with more than 300,000 copies sold. “We were already publishing coloring books for kids, but we started getting reports from parents who also liked them,” says Ana McLaughlin, the publisher’s advertising and marketing manager.

Unlike children’s books, adult books have more complex patterns. Themes range from gardens and mandalas to celebrities, such as those of illustrator Mel Elliot, also English, who bets on books with drawings of famous (that of the American heartthrob Ryan Gosling is a bestseller).

“I think the trend started with the interactive books, such as Destroy this diary, which was very successful. Since then, people have been looking for a way to interact with books and make them more personalized, “says Nana Vaz de Castro, Sextante’s procurement manager.

There is a thesis, however, which for now seems to be the most accepted: that they function as a kind of detox, an escape valve for stressful routines. “It’s really relaxing because when you focus on coloring right or choosing colors, the person actually seems to forget about the problems of the day,” says McLaughlin. “In addition, it still has the advantage that you can not color and tinker at the same time.”

BEAUTY IS FUNDAMENTAL The feeling of pride or satisfaction in completing the painting and watching how it looks beautiful is also another possible explanation since the books activate the reward circuit of the brain, the system responsible for the sensation of pleasure. When stimulated, it releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that causes the feeling of well-being (see below). “But it is not all the tasks that activate this system, which has developed over millions of years to impel us to perform actions useful for self-preservation and preservation of the species, such as feeding and reproducing,” explains neurologist Marino M Bianchin, of the Hospital de Clínicas of Porto Alegre.

Everything that involves manual work or art also stimulates creativity and concentration. When working with colors, the result is even better, as they can cause various sensations, such as heat, cold and tranquility. Bianchin explains that this is inherited from our ancestors, who from seeing fire, for example, started to associate red with heat.

But, although they cause a sense of pleasure and well-being, books can not be regarded as therapy, as explained by the art therapists Ana Carmen Nogueira and Alexandre Almeida. “In art therapy, there is a specific subject to be worked on, and we use different languages, such as painting or drawing, so that the person can express himself,” says Almeida. “Coloring books are not therapy, but they are relaxing because they help provide a moment of pure concentration,” adds Ana Carmen. That is, books can even work as a painkiller for stressful situations, but they have no miracle power to cure problems like depression or anxiety – unless you own a publisher and are earning a lot more than you expect thanks to new fashion. source: coloringpagebase.com