World Kid Lit Month: Taking a Translation on Tour

We don’t often associate translated children’s books with book tours—or at least I didn’t, until going on tour this year!

In New York at the Japan Society, 27 June 2025. From left: moderator Peter Tatara, myself, author Sachiko Kashiwaba, interpreter Mari Morimoto

So much may seem to stand in the way of a tour for a translation: The author may live a hemisphere away, or not speak the local language, or both. The book may have been published by a small or specialized press with limited marketing funds. Internationalism itself may be under attack in the new market.

Seen another way, of course, these are excellent reasons to launch a translation with a series of in-person events—both to help the book stand out and to affirm in the public square that "we are not alone on this globe," to quote Betsy Bird. There is nothing like real-life interaction to bring #worldkidlit and readers together.

At the Japan Society, 27 June 2025

The middle grade novel Kiri no mukō no fushigi na machi (霧のむこうのふしぎな町) by Sachiko Kashiwaba has been a fixture in Japanese bookstores and households for fifty years. Published in 1975, it both launched the author’s career and found an enduring place in the cultural zeitgeist. Hayao Miyazaki’s 1995 film Whisper of the Heart includes a scene where a character reads the book, and its influence is subtle yet unmistakable in the 2001 blockbuster Spirited Away. 

I was honored to translate this eight-chapter classic on the occasion of its half-century anniversary. It was sobering to consider, however, that this title loved by three generations in its home country is still brand-new in mine. When publisher Restless Books obtained a grant to work with Page One Media and send both Kashiwaba-san and me on a tour of several US cities, I wondered if "my" author would be greeted with empty venues.

At the Japan Society, 27 June 2025

I soon learned, like many before me, that not every venue would be sold-out. Not one was empty, however—thank goodness!—and each offered the chance to connect with a particular set of readers.

`At the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Mass., an event about The Village Beyond the Mist flowed into a showing of Spirited Away, affording interaction with a mixed crowd of bibliophiles and anime lovers, expertly moderated by Kalyani Saxena. At the Chatham Square branch of the New York Public Library in Chinatown, the function room buzzed with young people encouraged to attend by a passionate youth-services librarian. The author Kate Milford took part and asked keen questions of Kashiwaba-san, one prolific fantasy and mystery writer to another.

At the Coolidge Corner Theatre with book critic Kalyani Saxena moderating, 24 June 2025

At the Chatham Square Library with Greenglass House author Kate Milford moderating, 25 June 2025

At the Brooklyn Public Library’s Kensington Branch, we met fellow kidlit creatives, one who even came in cosplay. At the stately Japan Society in Manhattan, a line of Japanophiles including a brand-new graduate stretched across the lobby. 

At the Kensington Library, 26 June 2025

At the Japan Society, 27 June 2025

At the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia, we met more heroic librarians—and had a surprise visit from author-illustrator Grace Lin, who was there to launch The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon.

In Philadelphia at ALA Annual, with Grace Lin, 29 June 2025

Finally, at the historic Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., we encountered multiple families with two generations present. This was a present.

At Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, 1 July 2025

The larger crowds helped me feel we had truly welcomed an accomplished author. The smaller crowds afforded more time to take questions, speak with attendees in the signing line, pose for selfies, and otherwise make personal connections. Anecdotally, I would say the smaller events led to more moments when a casual participant became eager to explore not only Village, but also the backlist titles we had on hand—and even to pick up extra signed copies for friends and relatives.

I learned a few other things on tour that may help colleagues on similar adventures.

First, a multi-city junket is intense! Pace yourself. Half-days of downtime are golden!

Second, it’s key for you to boost and spread the word about your appearances—even if, as in our case, the publisher and a PR firm are shouting them out in addition to the venues. If you are the translator, you are more likely than the author to have family, friends, colleagues, friends of friends, family of colleagues, etc. in the target market. Our tour did not include a stop in my home region, but I would like to add one in the future to connect with more loved ones and longtime acquaintances.

Third, as the translator, you may need to prepare to act as the tour operator, so to speak. Though the hotels, flight, and trains on our tour were blessedly booked for us, I needed to create an itinerary for the author and think frequently about our meals, ground transportation, and communication with the venues and lodgings, since the author was new to those settings and faced a language barrier. This might be the kind of work for which a stipend could be proposed in advance.

Fourth, if you work as a literary translator but not as an interpreter (are more versed in writing than extemporaneous public speaking), avail yourself of a professional interpreter’s services at events, if feasible. The interpreter can convey the author's remarks and responses to questions, freeing you to focus on speaking as yourself, a creative partner in the translated edition of the book. My brain worked overtime at the events where I both spoke and took questions on literary translation, and interpreted the author's statements and responses to questions about authorship, which I relayed to her. Referring back to the first takeaway: a tour is intense!

Next Thursday, I will share about another first-time experience: translating a novel that has been translated before.

The tour described in this post was made possible by a generous grant from the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation of the Marin Community Foundation. 

Avery Fischer Udagawa’s translations include the 2022 Batchelder Award-winning novel Temple Alley Summer, the 2024 Batchelder Honor book The House of the Lost on the Cape, and new release The Village Beyond the Mist, all authored in Japanese by Sachiko Kashiwaba. Avery works in international education north of Bangkok and volunteers as SCBWI Global Translator Coordinator.

Inspiration from the 2022 Newbery-Caldecott-Legacy Awards

A highlight of the ALA conference is the acceptance speeches from three of the biggest awards in children's lit, the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal, and the Children's Literature Legacy Award.

This year, all three speeches were awesome: Donna Barba Higuera (who won the Newbery Medal for "The Last Cuentista"); Jason Chin (who won the Caldecott Medal for his illustrations for "Watercress" by Andrea Wang; and Grace Lin, who won the Children's Literature Legacy Award -  once they're uploaded, you should be able to listen to the speeches here: https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/NCWBanquetRecordings 

One highlight:

“It is our books that tell them who the heroes are and who they can be.” 

—Grace Lin

Enjoy!

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee 

Telling a Story That Is Not From Your Experience: Martha Brockenbrough on Collaborating with Grace Lin on their new Picture Book "I Am an American: the Wong Kim Ark Story"

I reached out to Martha to ask about how she came to co-write this new picture book with Grace. Here's what Martha shared:

The most wonderful things can happen inside vans taking authors to book festivals. Sometimes, collaborations are launched, and this is what happened with I Am an American: the Wong Kim Ark Story.

“Who the heck is Wong Kim Ark?” you might ask.

I hadn’t heard of him until 2014, when my friend Eric Liu published a book called A Chinaman’s Chance: One Family’s Journey and the Chinese American Dream. Eric mentioned Wong Kim Ark and his role in establishing birthright citizenship for every American, and that fact stopped me in my tracks.

I knew then that it could be a picture book, if I could find a way to make it resonate emotionally with very young readers. I bought a number of books about Chinese American history and was astonished and heartbroken about the rampant racism. As I thought about it and years passed, I also started to question the rightness of me, a white person, working on this book.

So when I was sitting next to Grace on that van, Grace, who is an absolute legend in storytelling as well as being a force for quality representation on the page, I asked her if she’d heard of him. She hadn’t, so I told her the story and the research I’d done, and I offered it to her.

She countered with an offer of collaboration, for which I will eternally be in her debt. I was right to doubt my fitness to tell this story. No matter what I’d picked up from history books, government records, and newspaper accounts, I still could not find the heart of the story emotionally until Grace told it to me: the right of Wong Kim Ark to assert his Americanness.

That gave us the title and refrain for our book, and even though it is about a particular piece of history, it resonates today—in the beauty and dynamism that the children of immigrants represent as well as the ugly racism of political leaders, including the former president, who threatened to undo this Supreme Court ruling, which is more than a century old.

The right of non-white people to assert Americanness is an emotional heart that illustrator Julia Kuo grasped beautifully. Her work also celebrates the rich history and nuances of Asian identity elements. If you haven’t pored over I Dream of Popo (words by Livia Blackburne and The Sound of Silence (words by Katrina Goldsaito), then you are in for a profound pleasure.

I’m incredibly proud of this beautiful book and humbled by the grit and courage of Wong Kim Ark. I hope it moves you as much as it did me.

Learn more about Martha Brockenbrough and her books here.

Learn more about Grace Lin and her books here.

And learn more about illustrator Julia Kuo here.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Racism, Growth of an Author/Illustrator, and Context: A Museum and Children's Book Creators Grapple with the "right" thing to do

So the Dr. Seuss museum had a mural painted on a main museum wall, illustrations from Dr. Seuss' first book, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.." (Mulberry street is only blocks from the museum's Springfield, Massachusetts location.) These illustrations included what today is understood to be a racist stereotype of a Chinese man.

Three children's book creators, Lisa Yee, Mike Curato, and Mo Willems were invited to a festival at the museum. They pulled out to protest the museum's lack of context for the mural, protesting the idea that the image would be seen by children and not interpreted in the scope of Dr. Seuss' evolution as an artist and a human being.

The festival was cancelled and the mural will be "replaced."

It's been reported in multiple sources, but I'd suggest you read the very well-considered post about this at Grace Lin's blog here.

It's interesting to consider both our power as children's book creators and how people (and even institutions) can evolve over time and go from buying into racial stereotypes to promoting tolerance, acceptance, and even celebrating differences.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Money Money Money...

Three thought-provoking discussions of making money as an artist (and if you write and illustrate for children and teens, that's what you are.)

#1: This Salon article, My Amazon bestseller made me nothing.

In it, author Patrick Wensink details exactly how much he made from having his novel become

"The international bestseller at the center of the "World's Nicest Cease and Desist" from Jack Daniel's. Featured in the New Yorker, New York Times, Forbes, London Telegraph, Esquire, The Atlantic, NPR's Weekend Edition and more."

#2  A newly discovered letter by Oscar Wilde, written to an aspiring young writer, that includes this advice:

“The best work in literature is always done by those who do not depend on it for their daily bread and the highest form of literature, Poetry, brings no wealth to the singer,”

#3 And this TED talk by Amanda Palmer, which I found in a great post by author Grace Lin at Blue Rose Girls.


Grace also quotes Neal Pollack on the questionable value of hype for an author, and says she found it

"both hopeful and disheartening. Hopeful because I think it just shows that the only real success one can can have being an author is writing something you truly love. But disheartening because that success may never pay the bills."

There are always going to be the stories of J. K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer and Suzanne Collins-level mega-bucks, but the vast number of books that get published don't make their author rich. 

So, if you are an artist whose work is not (yet) bringing in the income you need to make your life work, there are two questions to consider:

How are you going to support yourself? 

And maybe the larger issue,

What are the measures (besides money) that you are going to use to determine the success of your art?

Certainly there's no definitive answer someone else can hand you, but it's an important conversation we should be having - with ourselves, and our community.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee