Every September is World Kid Lit Month: the ideal time to read beyond your borders, and explore children’s books from other countries and translated from other languages.
This month I’ll be joined by SCBWI members from chapters worldwide, recommending books from every corner of the globe.
Today we start with two picture books from Nigeria and Ghana, and a YA novel set in Zimbabwe.
One of the most compelling reasons, I think, to embark on a #ReadtheWorld project is that it helps us reveal our own biases in the books we tend to gravitate to. And when we start looking for books from specific countries, we start to see the structural biases and gaps in terms of what is published.
It’s easy enough to find children’s books set in African countries; harder to find ones - in the UK and US, at least - that are from African countries, or translated from editions first published on the African continent.
What does this mean for translator members of SCBWI? That there is so much untapped potential in terms of children’s books to translate and help export to the world. At World Kid Lit, we keep data on what is translated into English and while we’re conscious there must be many more translations than we know about, the number of translations from African languages remains frustratingly small.
Some recent highlights in translation include YA and graphic novels from South Africa. New this year is The Girl with Wings by Jaco Jacobs, illustrated by Tori Stowe, translated by Kobus Geldenhuys; Jacobs’ zombie-filled middle grade stories were fantastic, so I’m sure this is worth seeking out, too.
In recent years, publishers have been branching out with Francophone picture books from beyond Europe, e.g. A Dream of Birds by Shenaz Patel, illustrated by Emmanuelle Tchoukriel, translated by Edwige-Renée Dro. The original French edition was published in Mauritius. And Eerdmans published an in-house translation of The Gift by Cameroonian author Alain Serge Dzotap, illustrated by Dephine Renon.
At SCBWI and at World Kid Lit, we encourage translators of languages spoken and published on the continent to seek out opportunities to translate as yet untranslated African kid lit authors. There’s so much potential for collaborations between translators.
At World Kid Lit, we help connect publishers with country and language experts, and we’re always keen to hear from translators with a particular expertise or connection to a specific country. A good place to start for translators keen to work more on African kid lit is our World Kid Lit LIVE discussion about African Kid Lit and Africa’s Many Languages. You could also explore the many reviews of books we’ve featured so far on the blog (#Reading Africa).
A few publishers in the US who have released African kid lit recently (in translation and in English) include Amazon Crossing and independents Lee and Low, Eerdmans, and Catalyst Press, and, in the UK, Lantana, Oneworld, HopeRoad, and Neem Tree Press (including the first YA novel from Algeria to be translated, The Djinn’s Apple by Djamila Morani, translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain).
The following books were written in English and explore themes as diverse as mental health, children's experience of war, and (dis)ability.
Which children's books have you read from Africa? What will you read this September?
Nigeria
What Happened on Thursday?
by Ayo Oyeku and Lydia Mba, published by Amazon Crossing, out on 17 September 2024
Recommended by Johanna McCalmont, SCBWI Benelux member
Set in 1967-1970, What Happened on Thursday? is a picture book narrated from the perspective of a young boy forced to flee the Nigerian civil war in Biafra with his parents and younger sister. Writing about war is not an easy task, but Ayo Oyeku finds a balance between everyday details that stand out to a child, like bread for breakfast, and the larger traumas of war time, like life in a refugee camp. Lydia Mba’s sharp illustrations use both vibrant and dark palettes, capturing the range of emotions and echoing Oyeku’s succinct yet often poetic text. The book includes useful notes and discussion questions.
Ghana
Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah
by Laurie Ann Thompson and Sean Qualls, published by Anne Schwartz Books, 2015
Recommended by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, SCBWI British Isles member
The perfect read during the Paris 2024 Paralympics! This is the inspiring story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, a Ghanaian athlete and disability rights activist, who became Ghana’s first disabled cyclist, pedalling the length and breadth of his country proudly wearing the label ‘Pozo’ (disabled person) on his shirt to show there’s no limit to what a person can do. The author’s note in the backmatter explains how Yeboah’s activism and the awareness he raised through his incredible bike ride of nearly 400 miles across Ghana - in just 10 days - contributed to the Ghanaian Parliament passing an equality law enshrining the equal rights of disabled citizens.
Zimbabwe
My Totem Came Calling
by Blessing Musariri and Thorten Nesch, published by Mawenzi House, 2019
Recommended by Suzanne Kamata, SCBWI Japan member
This young adult novel is set in Zimbabwe and concerns a seventeen-year-old named Chanda, who believes that she is seeing things (namely, a zebra, her totem animal). She goes on a road trip with friends and meets a German guy named Sven. As an American, I found the teens highly relatable. Often humorous, the novel nevertheless deals with serious issues such as mental illness.
Want to read more African kid lit and YA?
Here are some recommended resources and websites to help you discover more authors to read, or perhaps translate …
Accord Literary: literary agents Sarah Odedina and Kunmi Odueke representing authors based in Africa writing books for young readers; interview at World Kid Lit
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative (GLLI): #AfricanLiterature
Our Ancestories: children’s books about pre-colonial African legends and activities for kids to explore specific African cultures
Reading Africa Week (every December); at World Kid Lit
Suzanne Kamata is an American permanent resident of Japan, and the author of the young adult novel Indigo Girl (GemmaMedia, 2019) and the middle grade novel Pop Flies, Robo-pets and Other Stories (One Elm Books, 2020), both set in Japan.
Johanna McCalmont is originally from Northern Ireland but now lives in Brussels, Belgium, where she translates from French, German, Dutch, and Italian. Her translations have been published by Blue Dot Kids Press, Arctis Books, NorthSouth, and IUP. She also works as an interpreter. She is co-editor of World Kid Lit blog.
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp is an Arabic teacher and a literary translator working from Arabic, Russian and German into English. Her published translations include fiction, nonfiction and children’s books from Germany, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Russia, Switzerland and Syria. She gives workshops in schools about reading the world and creative translation, and is managing director of World Kid Lit CIC, the hosts of World Kid Lit Month.
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