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More Batchelder Award Thoughts
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 12:14:36 -0600
You've given us so much to think about, Norma Jean, with your description (3/26) of several levels of responsibility involved in acquiring and editing a children's book first published in a language other than English.
I hope a few of the editors and publishers in the CCBC-Net community will also comment on any of the issues you and Arthur Levine have already raised about publishing translated books or about this year's Batchelder winner.
One of the points Norma Jean made relates to the editorial decisions pending if it seems that the original text needs cutting prior to publication in this country. This level of responsible editorial involvement became clear to me while I chaired the 1987 ALSC Batchelder Award Committee. At that time - and possibly today, as well - the Batchelder guidelines required the committee chair to contact the editors of the contenders in advance of the final committee meetings. That was intended to establish that the award committee was correct in assuming that certain books had indeed been translated into English for the first time for U.S. publication. Then we also found out anything else necessary to verifying that the contenders were indeed eligible for the Batchelder Award.
One of the editors I contacted was Margaret K. McElderry. The translated book under consideration was "If You Didn't Have Me" written by Ulf Olsson Nilsson, illustrated with occasional artwork by Eva Eriksson, and translated from Swedish into English by Lone Thygesen Blecher & George Blecher (U.S. edition: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1986). Ms. McElderry verified the translation history of this remarkable short novel featuring a young urban boy's extended stay on a farm with his grandmother while his parents finished building their new house in town. Adult readers of this "chapter book" - also a great read-aloud, incidentally - usually notice that the timid little boy is creating his personal internal house or universe while becoming increasingly self-reliant. There's a chapter about rural bullies; one about the boy's discovery of his grandmother's false teeth in a glass next to her bed; another about his being left alone during the usual feeding time for hungry and aggressive chickens; and a final chapter involving a conversation between the boy and the hired man when they talk about the land. Actually they're talking about mortality and immortality, but the boy doesn't realize that. According to some U.S. reviewers "If You Didn't Have Me" is charming and gently humorous. Words that damn with faint praise. The boy doesn't have a first name, and his age isn't specified. "Foreign" elements, to be certain.
"If You Didn't Have Me" wasn't "gentle" in its original Swedish edition. That edition contained an explicit description of butchering. Ms. McElderry had determined that the butchering episode would be too much for young U.S. readers (or listeners). She had sought and received permission to excise that portion of the text for the U.S. edition.
As Kay Wiseman noted (3/26), Batchelder committee members don't have access to the original texts. ALSC would probably not be able to muster an annual committee if facility with multiple languages were a requirement for committee service. However in 1986, we made an effort in those years to locate the original editions of the contenders and then to find someone who could read them on behalf of the committee. Not easy, either. Usually a step not taken. We were fortunate. Ms. McElderry's astute judgment and her candor in the letter she wrote to me gave our committee exactly what was necessary for us to be certain that
"If You Didn't Have Me" was indeed eligible for the 1987 Batchelder Award. Not only eligible. It won!
Curiously that was the first time a Margaret K. McElderry Book had won the Batchelder Award. Those who note Ms. McElderry's distinguished editorial career rightly cite what a critic once called her "bold visionary instincts," one of which has always been her genuine international perspective. Perhaps few people today realize that not long after the end of World War Two, she brought a postwar novel book first published in Germany to U.S. children. It was "The Ark" by Margot Benary-Isbert (U.S. edition: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1953). She was also the first U.S. editor to publish a postwar children's book originating in Japan. Margaret K. McElderry was one of the book editors who made history with U.S. children in mind! What a concept! Just as the establishment of the Mildred Batchelder Award was a progressive action in its time, and it stills warrants attention and discussion. Even more so, if its guidelines can be tweaked or even changed (?) to make it easier for publishers, librarians, teachers, and booksellers alike to more directly promote the winning translated book!
Best, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Sat 27 Mar 2004 12:14:36 PM CST
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 12:14:36 -0600
You've given us so much to think about, Norma Jean, with your description (3/26) of several levels of responsibility involved in acquiring and editing a children's book first published in a language other than English.
I hope a few of the editors and publishers in the CCBC-Net community will also comment on any of the issues you and Arthur Levine have already raised about publishing translated books or about this year's Batchelder winner.
One of the points Norma Jean made relates to the editorial decisions pending if it seems that the original text needs cutting prior to publication in this country. This level of responsible editorial involvement became clear to me while I chaired the 1987 ALSC Batchelder Award Committee. At that time - and possibly today, as well - the Batchelder guidelines required the committee chair to contact the editors of the contenders in advance of the final committee meetings. That was intended to establish that the award committee was correct in assuming that certain books had indeed been translated into English for the first time for U.S. publication. Then we also found out anything else necessary to verifying that the contenders were indeed eligible for the Batchelder Award.
One of the editors I contacted was Margaret K. McElderry. The translated book under consideration was "If You Didn't Have Me" written by Ulf Olsson Nilsson, illustrated with occasional artwork by Eva Eriksson, and translated from Swedish into English by Lone Thygesen Blecher & George Blecher (U.S. edition: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1986). Ms. McElderry verified the translation history of this remarkable short novel featuring a young urban boy's extended stay on a farm with his grandmother while his parents finished building their new house in town. Adult readers of this "chapter book" - also a great read-aloud, incidentally - usually notice that the timid little boy is creating his personal internal house or universe while becoming increasingly self-reliant. There's a chapter about rural bullies; one about the boy's discovery of his grandmother's false teeth in a glass next to her bed; another about his being left alone during the usual feeding time for hungry and aggressive chickens; and a final chapter involving a conversation between the boy and the hired man when they talk about the land. Actually they're talking about mortality and immortality, but the boy doesn't realize that. According to some U.S. reviewers "If You Didn't Have Me" is charming and gently humorous. Words that damn with faint praise. The boy doesn't have a first name, and his age isn't specified. "Foreign" elements, to be certain.
"If You Didn't Have Me" wasn't "gentle" in its original Swedish edition. That edition contained an explicit description of butchering. Ms. McElderry had determined that the butchering episode would be too much for young U.S. readers (or listeners). She had sought and received permission to excise that portion of the text for the U.S. edition.
As Kay Wiseman noted (3/26), Batchelder committee members don't have access to the original texts. ALSC would probably not be able to muster an annual committee if facility with multiple languages were a requirement for committee service. However in 1986, we made an effort in those years to locate the original editions of the contenders and then to find someone who could read them on behalf of the committee. Not easy, either. Usually a step not taken. We were fortunate. Ms. McElderry's astute judgment and her candor in the letter she wrote to me gave our committee exactly what was necessary for us to be certain that
"If You Didn't Have Me" was indeed eligible for the 1987 Batchelder Award. Not only eligible. It won!
Curiously that was the first time a Margaret K. McElderry Book had won the Batchelder Award. Those who note Ms. McElderry's distinguished editorial career rightly cite what a critic once called her "bold visionary instincts," one of which has always been her genuine international perspective. Perhaps few people today realize that not long after the end of World War Two, she brought a postwar novel book first published in Germany to U.S. children. It was "The Ark" by Margot Benary-Isbert (U.S. edition: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1953). She was also the first U.S. editor to publish a postwar children's book originating in Japan. Margaret K. McElderry was one of the book editors who made history with U.S. children in mind! What a concept! Just as the establishment of the Mildred Batchelder Award was a progressive action in its time, and it stills warrants attention and discussion. Even more so, if its guidelines can be tweaked or even changed (?) to make it easier for publishers, librarians, teachers, and booksellers alike to more directly promote the winning translated book!
Best, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Sat 27 Mar 2004 12:14:36 PM CST
