2018 ALA Batchelder Award

Bravo to Delacorte Press for this year's ALA Mildred L. Batchelder awarded for The Murderer's Ape, written and illustrated by Jakob Wegelius, translated from the Swedish by Peter Graves.

It's the story of a sea captain wrongly convicted of murder. The twist is that a gorilla named Sally Jones – who can read, write, and understand humans – is the one who embarks on a lengthy adventure to clear the captain's name. After all, they do work together. Sally writes on a typewriter, narrating the story of the journal she kept from Portugal to India and back again.

2018 Honor Books :
Charlesbridge for Malala: Activist for Girls' Education, written by Raphaële Frier, illustrated by Aurélia Fronty, and translated from the French by Julie Cormier.



Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, for When a Wolf Is Hungry, written by Christine Naumann-Villemin, illustrated by Kris di Giacomo, translated from the French by EBYR.



Elsewhere Editions for You Can't Be Too Careful, written and illustrated by Roger Mello, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn.

A Children's Picture Book About Death Wins Batchelder Award

“Cry, Heart, But Never Break” is the 2017 winner for American Library Association Mildred L. Batchelder Award*. Originally published in Danish in 2001 as “Græd blot hjerte,” the book was written by Glenn Ringtved, illustrated by Charolotte Pardi. It was translated into English by Robert Moulthrop and published by Enchanted Lion Books.

Translation of books into English for the American market is always an arduous adventure, the United States traditionally being slow to bring world literature to readers here, so the courage of those who made this happen should not be overlooked. Read translator Robert Moulthrop's narrative of "How a Danish book for children about death comes to be published in the U.S."

Bravo to Glenn Ringtved for his story.

Bravo to Charlotte Pardi for her illustrations.

Bravo to Robert Moulthrop for his wonderful translation.

Bravo to Claudia Bedrick of Enchanted Lion Books for having the vision and the courage to publish it!

Congratulations to all involved. 

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*The Mildred L. Batchelder Award goes to an outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States. 

drôle d'oiseau… (a funny little bird)

I love the look of this picture book.

What I love even more is that this little French-language picture book was written by an American. Yes, by a Minnesota native who lives in Strasbourg, France. And what's even more fabulous is that the English language rights were bought by an American publisher.
Rights to picture books are bought and sold at Bologna but usually an Italian picture book turns out to be written by an Italian, a French picture book by someone whose native language is French, and a Russian one by an author whose mother tongue is Russian.
Yay! Bravo! to Jennifer Yerkes!
Yay! Bravo! to éditions MeMo!
And big Yay! and big Bravo! to Sourcebooks and publisher Dominique Raccah who brought it to the attention of acquisitions editor Steve Geck! Do those two realize how very daring they are? I can only assume that they know how very few foreign language books are translated into English for American readers? Here's to courage and bravery and daring!
I have yet to have a picture book published but I am working on several, both in French and English. I would love to have a picture book I've written in French be published in France, and then, à la Jennifer Yerkes, have an American editor fall in love with it, and publish it in the States. Being a bilingual author is such a great state of bliss. I am an American whose native language is English, and yet, my passion is to find the words in French, to write in French. I have written my first two published works in French, edited by Éditions Talents Hauts. If only Formula One were as popular in the US as baseball is, the strong-girl story of Axelle who wants to be a race-car driver in Combinaison gagnante could excite an editor here, and be translated into English!
In the meantime, I find the tale of a funny little bird to be highly inspirational. Congratulations to Jennifer, to MeMo, and to Sourcebooks.

« Un livre » or "Press Here"

Wanting to write one last post before 2012 is just a memory, I felt like I had too little time to come up with something clever or interesting. So leave it to my dear friend Louise Borden to introduce me to the most marvelous children's book… and to hand me the subject of my ultimate post for the year. French author and illustrator Hervé Tullet has created a playful picture book entitled « Un Livre » using… simple dots in primary colors. Originally published in France in 2010 by Bayard Jeunesse then translated into English by Christopher Franceschelli and published in the United States by Chronicle Books in 2011, this innocent looking book gives the most simple commands—touch, press, turn, blow, shake, clap, tap—and the reader is thus engaged in joyous activity of the most basic kind, that of letting his or her imagination run wild with endless possibilities. Just watch the joy in the book trailer on YouTube:

Hervé Tullet

I love this book! For kids of all ages, this delightful creation is a great way to end the year, and to start a new one. Albert Einstein, after all, once famously said, "Logic will get you from A to Z. Imagination will get you everywhere."

To see what children say at the end of the book, 

see bottom right-hand corner!

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Hooray for "Soldier Bear"

With the annual announcement of the American Library Association's Newbery and Caldecott prizes, January is always an exciting month for anyone interested in children's literature, and even more so for those of us who write, illustrate, translate, edit, publish, or have any connection with this vibrant field of literature. But what many people don't know is that the ALA awards other prizes each year as well. One of them is the Mildred L. Batchelder Award. Yesterday, I was thrilled to learn that Laura Watkinson's translation of "Soldier Bear,"written by Bibi Dumon Tak, illustrated by Philip Hopman, translated by Laura from the Dutch, and published in the United States by Eerdmans' Books for Young Readers has been awarded the 2012 ALA Batchelder award for translation of an outstanding children's work from a foreign language. Only the very best translators receive this award, and Laura is more than deserving: the story is beautifully and seamlessly rendered in English. When I read it last December, after happening upon it at the Eerdmans' booth at the NCTE conference in Chicago, I was both moved and delighted. BRAVO, Laura! And Bravo as well to Eerdmans' Books for taking a chance on a story from outside our sometimes very insular American borders!
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Pippi Longstocking

I've just finished reading, for the first time ever, Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking. Wow, am I flabbergasted! Wishing now that I would have read this earlier in life, I can only guess how much I would have enjoyed this as a girl. Irreverent, strong, eccentric, subversive - she's a girl's role model, and a woman's delight. Refusing authority to those whom we never dare disrespect, ie, teachers and policemen, Pippi delights in being her own person, her own nine-year rebellious, natural, wonderful self.

Pippi Longstocking came out in 1945 in Sweden, but it wasn't until the book's translation into English by Edna Hurup in 1954 did it become a worldwide sensation, and with it Pippi, a classic, trans-cultural archetype of children's literature.

She reminds me of characters from Roald Dahl's world, of creatures from Dr. Seuss's crazy galley. She is as good as Alice in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, turning us all on our heads, making us totally topsy-turvy.


For years, Pippi has been available to my students in my classroom, but it's just one of those books I never took the time to read. Lately, when I heard that Lisbeth Salander, aka The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, was based more on Pippi than on anyone else, I was intrigued. What an eye-opening and fun read it's been.
2007 Oxford University Edition with cover illustration by Lauren Child

I wonder… what editor would take a chance on Pippi today?

2010 SCBWI Conference in New York

From Washington DC, I took the bus up to New York with my friend and colleague, Marie-Isabelle Callier, French-language children's author and illustrator (published by Alice Editions in Brussels), for my very first SCBWI national conference. (If you weren't there, you can read all about it at the Official SCBWI conference blog.) It's difficult to sum up the wealth of information, encounters, new contacts, and inspiration that I received while there. I found it so encouraging to be with creative and determined people from all over the country. I liked the friendliness. I soaked up the stories of perserverence I found there. Jane Yolen's keynote address on Sunday was high on encouragement never to give up. I loved her line about networking: not only is it key, but she noted that the editorial assistant sitting next to me today just might be tomorrow's publisher! She added that if the publishing world is struggling, the work of storytelling is alive and kicking. The message - whether it be from Libby Bray, Alvina Ling, Allyn Johnston, or Jane Yolen - was that a writer, an illustrator must be true to himself or herself, that we write and create our art for children and young people by, as Jane Yolen put it, pouring our heart out on the page (only one of her twenty rules!). I loved meeting Ashley Wolff, an experienced and wonderfully creative illustrator from San Francisco, who chatted with Marie-Isabelle and me as if we were all old friends, as well as her friend, Louise Borden, a wonderful writer from Cincinnati, whom I would have loved to have had more time with, once I found out about her chronicling the escape of the Margret and H.A. Rey as the Nazis were approaching Paris. I feel sure she would have told me her whole story, had we had the time! I loved the collaborative spirit, the "we're in this together" attitude, the camaraderie and solidarity amongst artists. 


I had waited too late in registering for the Writers' Intensive, but since I was in New York by Thursday, I had the idea of showing up anyway, thinking someone out in the Midwest would surely be snowed in, and that I could fill in for him or her! Well, five other people - Joan Juttner from Wisconsin, Trela Caler from San Francisco, Joanna Sullivan from Pennsylvania, and Debbie Guthery from Nashville, and Karen Robbins from Seattle (who astounded us with her creativite spirit) - all had had the same idea. When, at 9am, we were told by the organizers that the intensive session really was full, well, qu'à cela ne tienne, we created our own group, and spent three hours in a critique session in the morning, and three more hours in a critique session that afternoon. These women were amazing and their stories even better! Never give up? That's the spirit.


One slight disappointment I felt was in ascertaining from talks with other attendees that children's literature in translation (something that I am totally passionate about - see blogpost from October) is not yet hot... in fact, it conjures up yawns more than anything else. But legendary agent Sheldon Fogelman said, after I approached him with a question about translation, "You write in French? You're going through the editorial process with an editor in Paris? You have a book coming out in France? My dear, you have your work cut out for you! What are worrying about?" During his lecture that morning, he had noted that as writers, we mustn't stop at book one. Or book two for that matter. Keep writing, he said. The profession is difficult, but if you choose it, writing is your job. He's right. And since I do have a book with an editor in France with an expected publication date of end 2010... well, I just have to keep on writing - in French, in English, however the story comes to me - and to send my work out as much as possible in the hope that it is good enough, written from the heart enough, to be picked up by an editor who wants that story told. The realities of the publishing world can be discouraging, but being informed helps. How lucky we are to have SCBWI to help us chart our course.

Le mot de la fin? I have my work cut out for me. Marie-Isabelle - whose heartfelt stories I've been translating into English with more pleasure than I can say and which I feel sure will one day find their way to an editor who will at first glance fall in love with them - felt the same way as we talked endlessly on our way home Sunday afternoon. Back in DC, we are excited, discouraged, renewed, unsure of ourselves pehaps, but exhilarated... and yes, ready to continue the adventure.

Children's Literature in Translation

Try to imagine for one minute how impoverished the children of the world (and we as adults) would be if certain works of literature had never been translated. We would be deprived of some of our richest and most interesting imaginative literary friends: Collodi's Pinocchio, Jean de Brunoff's Babar the Elephant, Hergé's Tintin, Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking, Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, Aesop's animal creatures,

and all of Charles Perrault's fantastical Mother Goose Tales, including Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss 'n Bootos, and Cinderella. We would be unaware of the Arabian Nights: Schererzade's telling of Aladdin's Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, and the many colorful and intriguing characters from the Thousand and One Nights. We would not know the Grimm Brothers' Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Hansel and Gretel. Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, Red Shoes, Ugly Duckling, and the Princess and the Pea would be strangers to us! The adventure of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the delight of Joanna Spyri's Heidi, and the sleuthing of Erich Kästner's Emil and the Detectives would have passed us by. Yet, these stories and characters have inhabited our minds since we were young, and it is thanks to translators and translations that they have.

Despite these familiar authors, much loved characters, and compelling stories, fewer than 2 percent of titles currently on our bookstore or library shelves here in the USA are translations. In France, translated works count for 23 percent. If it's true that English-language works for children are among the most beautiful, vibrant, and creative, it is also true that without world literature, we cut ourselves off from a source of

enchantment, wisdom, and knowledge. The dominance of the English language worldwide is often a sore sticking point in the current debate on translation. Why should one language dominate the global cultural landscape, detractors argue. Others say, why bother to translate when we have such a wealth of our own literature?

Philip Pullman, author of the award-winning fantasy triology, His Dark Materials, expressed it well in his introduction to Outside In: Children's Books in Translation by Deborah Hallford and Edgardo Zaghini: "You never know what will set a child's imagination on fire... but if we don't offer children the experience of literature from other languages, we're starving them. It's as simple as that." I agree wholeheartedly with his assessment. This book aims to celebrate and actively promote an interest in international children's literature has generated some badly needed enthusiasm as well as an organization, Outside In World, dedicated to promoting and exploring world literature and children's books in translation. I like to think that John Newbery, often viewed as the first publisher of children's literature and whose leitmotiv was to "combine instruction with delight," would have been a big supporter.

The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) was founded after WWII with the objective of promoting international understanding through children's literature. In 1956, it established the Hans Christian Andersen Award for a living author and illustrator whose works have made a lasting contribution to children's literature. In 1978, it added an Honour List to include a category for acknowledging excellence in translation. It also publishes a journal, Bookbird, a journal of international children's literature, which reviews and recommends books for translation.

Stateside, the American Library Association (ALA) established the Mildred Batchelder Award in 1966, to be given to the American publisher of the most outstanding translation into English of books originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States. The award promotes the translation of children's literature, seeking "to eliminate barriers to understanding between people of different cultures, races, nations, and languages." The 2009 Award winner was for Arthur A. Levine Books' Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, written by Nahoko Uehashi, translated from the Japanese by Cathy Hirano. And the two 2009 Honor Books were translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett, and from the German by Anthea Bell.

A propos, ever heard of Asterix? Of course you have. Ever heard of Anthea Bell? Probably not. In the world of translation of children's literature, she's the equivalent of a rock star! In 1996, 2003, and 2007, she received United Kingdom's Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation, an honor that goes to the translator rather than to the author. In her vibrant translation of the Asterix bandes dessinées, she did an phenomenal job of keeping the original playful puns intact, receiving high praise for her creatively innovative translation. When interviewed, she once said that a translator becomes another author while at the same time having to get under the skin of the original author. She has translated the wildly popular Inkworld triology by Cornelia Funke. Her translations have won for her publishers the Batchelder Award four different times, and the Batchelder Honor three different times to date, most recently in 2009 for Amulet Books' Tiger Moon, written by Antonia Michaelis, translated by Ms. Bell from the German.

As an advocate for the translation of children's literature, I believe the purpose of books in translation - besides the sheer pleasure of discovery and reading - should be to acquaint children with other cultures. As Anthea Bell put it in a 2006 interview with Writer Unboxed, "The more widely children read, the more open-minded they will surely get to be." An arduous yet exhilirating task, translating children's literature is what I love. Seeking the words and phrases that will convey original meaning is better than solving the most challenging puzzle. If the work of translators breaks down barriers of language and race and geography leads to a greater understanding of other peoples and their culture, might translators be working for world peace?