From: Barbara Tobin <barbarat>
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 11:24:44 -0500

it was nice to have novels for a slightly younger audience that happened to come from another country.>

Robin talks about the success she has had with reading Susie Morgenstern's translated books to children. I have also enjoyed her somewhat quirky titles, but I am somewhat bemused by the fact that Susie is actually an American born and raised in New Jersey, who has lived in France for the last 30 years or so (I hope I have the details correct). I find it curious that we get to read her books in translation form back here in the U. S. I wonder at just how "foreign" this writing appears to American readers?? I wonder if Susie 'thinks' in French, and how much she draws on her American childhood or observing children growing up in France? My point is that I don't find her books particularly 'foreign', except in surface level ways, like having French character and place names and a few French words. Perhaps that is why her books are more popular in the U. S. (apart from their shorter, lighter, funnier style) than the longer translated books that we have seen lately that are definitely 'different' in sometimes intangible ways. Morgenstern's books seem 'foreign' only in a familiar way. The double translation hasn't really done much to let us dig into a culture, just smile at a what almost seems to me to be a 'faux foreign' book, a taste of the exotic without having to wrestle with the unexpected. I may have this all wrong, and be doing Ms. Morgenstern and her publishers/translators a disservice. I would welcome counter views.

I usually try to include a Batchelder translation in each of my children's literature (university) classes, where I slip one in under a thematic or genre based topic, and don't make a big deal initially of the origin of the book. Students usually make a selection from a choice of about six titles I offer them, under say, 'fantasy', or
'multicultural/international', mostly using a brief synopsis for their decision making. Not until the group has read the book and is discussing it in their small book club group, do I chat with them and try to dig into their invariably lukewarm response. With both 'The Thief Lord' and 'Samir and Yonatan' they felt quite unsatisfied in ways they found hard to describe ("too foreign"??). We discuss then the issues of translation and difference in cultural context and expectations in literature, and wonder to what degree this might have affected our responses. With 'The Thief Lord' we don't know if Funke's unusual hybrid genre of realism-suddenly-turning-to?ntasy is just her own particular style, or a more commonplace (and accepted) style in German writing. With the realism of 'Samir and Yonatan' they definitely do not feel comfortable with the somewhat unfamiliar style of character relationships and plot development and resolution. Once again, we can't know to what degree these are characteristics of the literary culture from which the author writes, or purely individual style. Perhaps I might have more success if I have the entire class read one of the Batchelder books, instead of just one group, letting the whole class experience the dissonance of tackling a 'foreign' book, and hopefully have that dissonance lead to a richer, deeper conversation, and a more satisfying understanding and growth beyond our comfortable insular perspectives.

Regarding the issue of to whom the Batchelder award should go, does it have to be an either/or (the publisher, author, or translator)? Cannot the award go to the BOOK, whereby ALL these important contributors share in the recognition? It has always bothered me that the Caldecott Award in the U. SA. goes to the illustrator, which seems to slight the author's integral contribution. In Australia, BOTH author and illustrator are recognized in the picture book award. Would this work for the Batchelder?

Barbara Tobin (barbarat at gse.upenn.edu)
Received on Sat 27 Mar 2004 10:24:44 AM CST