For our third post celebrating World Kid Lit Month 2023, translator and translation activist Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp brings us up to date with the new books on the blog, and highlights some of the amazing ways readers have been celebrating #WorldKidLitMonth offline in the real world... Thank you, Ruth!
On the blog this week...
Megan Farr introduces “three children’s books that have been recently translated into Welsh or English from other languages and published in Wales, importing children’s literature from French (Québec), German (Switzerland) and Latvian (Latvia). Each book was discovered in different ways, Y Lloches (L’abri/The Shelter) via a reader recommendation; Y Parsel Coch (Das rote Paket/The Red Parcel) via a translated children’s literature panel discussion and Dog Town (Maskačkas stāsts) via recommendation through Latvian Literature. All three books enrich the children’s literature in Wales, s, bringing stories of refugee bears, a parcel that spreads kindness and talking dogs that save a district from gentrification.”
Elementary school teacher and globe-trotting picture book fan Lori of Kids Read the World (where they have hit 67+ countries already, with many more to come!) writes: “What comes to mind when you hear the word monster? I usually think of a scary, evil creature that is trying to do someone harm. As the picture books we’re going to look at today show us, monsters can come in many forms. However, they also show us that monsters can be defeated, even the imaginary ones, which are sometimes the scariest. These books would be great to read with fearful little ones who need a safe place to talk about what’s scaring them, as well as those who like a little suspense in their stories.”
What's happening in World Kid Lit Month 2023? Highlights from around the world!
This is the third of four posts by the World Kid Lit
team this September! See you next week!
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp is a literary translator working from Arabic, German and Russian in English. A passionate advocate of world literature for young people and diversity in children's publishing and education, she is co-editor of ArabKidLitNow! and Russophone Kid Lit blogs, and writes about global reading for young people at World Kid Lit, Words Without Borders, and World Literature Today. She also promotes language learning and creative translation for young people through her workshops in schools.
Helen Wang is a UK-based translator of children's literature from Chinese to English. Her best known translation is the novel Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, 2016. She runs the blog Chinese Books for Young Readers.