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Books in Translation
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 15:52:29 -0600
Fran, you've brought up an interesting point, i.e., "non-Disney" versions of classic works such as Pinocchio. There are many English language editions of Pinocchio, some of which were translated directly from the Italian. It's good to find out that your children enjoyed a longer version. If classic works - translated or not - are too long or dense for today's young readers, there's nothing wrong with publishing carefully selected passages to honor and retain the author's own words.
My mention of Pinocchio and The Diary of a Young Girl was in conjunction with trying to say that certain books usually taken for granted are, in fact, translated books. We don't encourage kids to read them *because* they're translated. Kids don't care about that. Some of us encourage kids to read these books because they've stood a certain test of time.
Even though our subject this week is the 1998 Batchelder Award Books along with Books in Translation, I assume most of us will plug these particular translated books into the thematic, genre and topical "files" in our heads. Unless we're "teaching" translated books or the Batchelder Award, we probably won't think of these books first as translated books. It's my hope that we'll think of them as excellent books, period. ... 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
A quick aside re Ginny's remark about not thinking of classics like Pinocchio as translated works when/if we introduce such tales to children. That
"when/if" is significant I think--do any children these days know there is a different (i.e., non-Disney) version of Pinocchio? I'm lucky enough to have a 1937 edition of Pinocchio which I've read to my children. They were fascinated by the "real" story and enjoyed it immensely, much as they did when I read them the Wizard of Oz (granted not a translated work but, given how different it is from the movie, it might as well be!).
Unfortunately I can't speak as to the quality of the translation in the Pinocchio I have. I only know that it has an old?shioned cast to the wording that suits the time period in which it was written and also does not sound "American." Still, it is easy to read and, I think, to comprehend. Perhaps that is the true test?
Fran Sammis author
Received on Mon 09 Mar 1998 03:52:29 PM CST
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 15:52:29 -0600
Fran, you've brought up an interesting point, i.e., "non-Disney" versions of classic works such as Pinocchio. There are many English language editions of Pinocchio, some of which were translated directly from the Italian. It's good to find out that your children enjoyed a longer version. If classic works - translated or not - are too long or dense for today's young readers, there's nothing wrong with publishing carefully selected passages to honor and retain the author's own words.
My mention of Pinocchio and The Diary of a Young Girl was in conjunction with trying to say that certain books usually taken for granted are, in fact, translated books. We don't encourage kids to read them *because* they're translated. Kids don't care about that. Some of us encourage kids to read these books because they've stood a certain test of time.
Even though our subject this week is the 1998 Batchelder Award Books along with Books in Translation, I assume most of us will plug these particular translated books into the thematic, genre and topical "files" in our heads. Unless we're "teaching" translated books or the Batchelder Award, we probably won't think of these books first as translated books. It's my hope that we'll think of them as excellent books, period. ... 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
A quick aside re Ginny's remark about not thinking of classics like Pinocchio as translated works when/if we introduce such tales to children. That
"when/if" is significant I think--do any children these days know there is a different (i.e., non-Disney) version of Pinocchio? I'm lucky enough to have a 1937 edition of Pinocchio which I've read to my children. They were fascinated by the "real" story and enjoyed it immensely, much as they did when I read them the Wizard of Oz (granted not a translated work but, given how different it is from the movie, it might as well be!).
Unfortunately I can't speak as to the quality of the translation in the Pinocchio I have. I only know that it has an old?shioned cast to the wording that suits the time period in which it was written and also does not sound "American." Still, it is easy to read and, I think, to comprehend. Perhaps that is the true test?
Fran Sammis author
Received on Mon 09 Mar 1998 03:52:29 PM CST
