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Translation and technicalities
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 15:55:25 -0600
I should never have introduced anything about the technicalities of Batchelder Award criteria, because these concern and interest only a very few people in the CCBC-NET community. I apologize for creating a digression from the main point: translated books represent a numerically small but extremely significant, substantial part of literature for children and teenagers.
Most of us can probably agree with the essence of what Mildred L. Batchelder herself wrote in the journal Minnesota Libraries (Autumn, 1972: 307): " Children of one country who come to know the books and stories of many countries have made a beginning toward international understanding; 2) knowing the classic stories of a country creates an attitude for understanding towards the people for whom that literature is a heritage; 3) children, who know they are reading in translation the same stories which children in other countries are reading, develop a sense of nearness with those in other lands; and 4) interchange of children's books between countries through translation enhances communication between the peoples of those countries, and, if the books chosen for traveling from language to language are worthy books, the resulting communication is deepr, richer, more sympatheict and more enduring."
Although you and I might not express our hopes for the possibilities of translated books in the way Mildred Batchelder once did, we no doubt believe that such books make a difference. We're optimists. That's why most of you signed up to be part of the CCBC-NET discussions. You make a difference, because you are searching for good books written in many voices and narrative styles.
Publishers and editors alert to the potential of literature already being enjoyed by young readers in other nations are also optimists, because their houses usually don't make enough money from the sales of translated books in the USA to recover the expenditures. We depend on these editors and their associates to discover, pounce (thanks, Marc!), and somehow publish books in the USA by authors kids haven't heard of, to bring them stories and accounts set in times and places unfamilar to most of them. We're all optimists, because we know the power of a memorable book, and we're committed to finding such books and finding ways to put them into kids' experiences.
Margaret K. McElderry is an optimist. In 1953, she found a way to publish The Ark by Margot Benary-Isbert, a translated book, a book first written in German. This may not seem as radical a decision now as it was at the time. Ask people who remember those years. Ask them what it meant to see another book published by Ms. McElderry, one first enjoyed in Japanese by children in the nation we Americans had recently understood as an enemy. Notice some of the other books she's edited over the years such as the many illustrated picture books first published in Europe. Although she did not receive formal recognition through the Batchelder Award process until 1988 (If You Didn't Have Me by Ulf Nilsson Sweden), Margaret K. McElderry continued to search for and publish books she felt sure American children would enjoy if they only could see and read them here in the USA. This is what Marc and Brenda and Arthur (and many other editors who could also be named today) are doing - along with everything else on their minds in today's urgent consumer environment. They are optimists. And so are we.
So is the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), who, along with Scarecrow Press, have confidence that a new reference book edited by Carl M. Tomlinson will be of use to all interested in discovering excellent books for young readers. The book is titled Children's Books from Other Countries (Scarecrow Press, 1998; 0?08447-2, $24.50), highlighting 724 books from 29 different nations published in English between 1950 and 1996. It's available now. All royalties from sales of this book will be used by USBBY to promote children's literature and reading in the U.S. and other nations. Marc, Susan and I are among the former and current USBBY Board members who have eagerly awaited this reference book. I encourage all of you to act on your optimism by buying it and then finding ways to use the guidance in it!
The discussion of Batchelder Award technicalities can be continued on a one to one basis with the individuals who want to do that.
As a discussion community, let's move now to a directly related subject: Latino literature brought to visiblity through the Pura Belpre Award process. If someone from the New York Public Library community is willing to tell us all more about Ms. Pura Belpre, this will be useful and interesting to us, too. ...Ginny Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education University of Wisconsin - Madison
Received on Tue 17 Mar 1998 03:55:25 PM CST
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 15:55:25 -0600
I should never have introduced anything about the technicalities of Batchelder Award criteria, because these concern and interest only a very few people in the CCBC-NET community. I apologize for creating a digression from the main point: translated books represent a numerically small but extremely significant, substantial part of literature for children and teenagers.
Most of us can probably agree with the essence of what Mildred L. Batchelder herself wrote in the journal Minnesota Libraries (Autumn, 1972: 307): " Children of one country who come to know the books and stories of many countries have made a beginning toward international understanding; 2) knowing the classic stories of a country creates an attitude for understanding towards the people for whom that literature is a heritage; 3) children, who know they are reading in translation the same stories which children in other countries are reading, develop a sense of nearness with those in other lands; and 4) interchange of children's books between countries through translation enhances communication between the peoples of those countries, and, if the books chosen for traveling from language to language are worthy books, the resulting communication is deepr, richer, more sympatheict and more enduring."
Although you and I might not express our hopes for the possibilities of translated books in the way Mildred Batchelder once did, we no doubt believe that such books make a difference. We're optimists. That's why most of you signed up to be part of the CCBC-NET discussions. You make a difference, because you are searching for good books written in many voices and narrative styles.
Publishers and editors alert to the potential of literature already being enjoyed by young readers in other nations are also optimists, because their houses usually don't make enough money from the sales of translated books in the USA to recover the expenditures. We depend on these editors and their associates to discover, pounce (thanks, Marc!), and somehow publish books in the USA by authors kids haven't heard of, to bring them stories and accounts set in times and places unfamilar to most of them. We're all optimists, because we know the power of a memorable book, and we're committed to finding such books and finding ways to put them into kids' experiences.
Margaret K. McElderry is an optimist. In 1953, she found a way to publish The Ark by Margot Benary-Isbert, a translated book, a book first written in German. This may not seem as radical a decision now as it was at the time. Ask people who remember those years. Ask them what it meant to see another book published by Ms. McElderry, one first enjoyed in Japanese by children in the nation we Americans had recently understood as an enemy. Notice some of the other books she's edited over the years such as the many illustrated picture books first published in Europe. Although she did not receive formal recognition through the Batchelder Award process until 1988 (If You Didn't Have Me by Ulf Nilsson Sweden), Margaret K. McElderry continued to search for and publish books she felt sure American children would enjoy if they only could see and read them here in the USA. This is what Marc and Brenda and Arthur (and many other editors who could also be named today) are doing - along with everything else on their minds in today's urgent consumer environment. They are optimists. And so are we.
So is the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), who, along with Scarecrow Press, have confidence that a new reference book edited by Carl M. Tomlinson will be of use to all interested in discovering excellent books for young readers. The book is titled Children's Books from Other Countries (Scarecrow Press, 1998; 0?08447-2, $24.50), highlighting 724 books from 29 different nations published in English between 1950 and 1996. It's available now. All royalties from sales of this book will be used by USBBY to promote children's literature and reading in the U.S. and other nations. Marc, Susan and I are among the former and current USBBY Board members who have eagerly awaited this reference book. I encourage all of you to act on your optimism by buying it and then finding ways to use the guidance in it!
The discussion of Batchelder Award technicalities can be continued on a one to one basis with the individuals who want to do that.
As a discussion community, let's move now to a directly related subject: Latino literature brought to visiblity through the Pura Belpre Award process. If someone from the New York Public Library community is willing to tell us all more about Ms. Pura Belpre, this will be useful and interesting to us, too. ...Ginny Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education University of Wisconsin - Madison
Received on Tue 17 Mar 1998 03:55:25 PM CST
