By Nanette McGuinness This week Nanette McGuiness talks to Eva Apelqvist about her work as both a writer and a translator of Swedish-language books for children. The interview is published with kind permission from the GLLI #WorldKidLit Wednesday blog where it first appeared on April 10, 2024 here. Eva Apelqvist is the author of the Swedish-language skateboard mystery Mörker över skateparken (2022 Swedish Mystery Academy Award for best mystery for children and young adults),  Swede Dreams, LGBTQ FAMILIES: The Ultimate Teen Guide, and Getting Ready to Drive: A How To G ..read more

By Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp Hearty congratulations to Siân Mackie, translator of this year’s Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Translated YA Book Prize winner: Smash the Patriarchy: A Graphic Novel by Marta Breen & Jenny Jordahl. Published in English (and also German) by Helvetiq in 2023, this colorful and often very funny graphic novel was first published in Norwegian as Patriarkatet Faller. Opening with an overview of the centuries of male pontificating about women’s alleged inferiority, Smash the Patriarchy charts the history of misogyny and male gaze through the writi ..read more

By Amanda Bird While multiple themes link this Eerdmans quartet, two predominate: the sea and human encounters. All four titles adhere to realism, in the main; facts particularly abound in Fadeeva’s guides to the science of wind and water. But her conceptual illustrations spill from the page, and the unlikely encounters in the two fiction titles encourage us to believe in the power and possibility of human connection, even when circumstance and geography divide us. Three of these titles also share a common source language (Russian) and translator (Lena Traer), while Here and There was publishe ..read more

This week WKL regular contributor and French-to-English translator Catherine Leung talks to French YA author Manon Fargetton about some of her great books that have yet to be published in an English translation. Catherine Leung: Thanks for joining us on the blog today. I know you are very busy as you have just published the first book in your new YA fantasy series, Le Cycle des Secrets, with Gallimard Jeunesse in France. I think young readers will be really inspired to hear that you started writing at a young age. Could you tell us a little bit about what drew you to writing? Did you always k ..read more

Are you a publisher on the look out for great books for children and young adults from across the globe? Are you excited about publishing fantastic stories in English translation? Then look no further! This week, World Kid Lit celebrates London Book Fair by bringing you a few suggestions we think readers (of all ages) will love! Today we travel to Belgium, Bulgaria, the Faroe Islands, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine. And the great news for publishers is that translation funding opportunities are available for all languages! Belgium Morris Written by: Bart Moeyaert Illustrated by: Se ..read more

Are you a publisher on the look out for great books for children and young adults from across the globe? Are you excited about publishing fantastic stories in English translation? Then look no further! This week, World Kid Lit celebrates London Book Fair by bringing you a few suggestions we think readers (of all ages) will love! Today we travel to Africa with tips from Cameroon & Côte d’Ivoire. Cameroon Le Défilé (The Parade) Written by: Kouam Tawa Illustrated by: Marco Chamorro Original language: French [Cameroon] Target age group: 9+ Publisher: Éditions Voce Verso (2023 ..read more

Are you a publisher on the look out for great books for children and young adults from across the globe? Are you excited about publishing fantastic stories in English translation? Then look no further! This week, World Kid Lit celebrates London Book Fair by bringing you a few suggestions we think readers (of all ages) will love! Today we travel to the Americas, North and South, with tips from Canada, Curaçao & Bolivia. Canada Ratatin Written by: Mélina Schoenborn  Illustrated by: Felipe Arriagada-Nunez  Original language: French [Canada] Target Age: 3+  Pub ..read more

This week we take a whirlwind tour of kidlit from Flanders as Lien Devos and Rachel Toogood tell us about their favourite English translations, the new Flip Through Flanders campaign, and the Flemish writers they’d love to see translated into English.  By Johanna McCalmont WKL: Flanders Literature is a wonderful initiative and I was excited to see Flip Through Flanders launched at the 2023 London Book Fair. Can you tell us about your work promoting Flemish literature?  Lien Devos: Flanders is the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, and Flanders Literature is an autonomous orga ..read more

by Paula Holmes One month ago, January 22, the 2024 Youth Media Award (YMAs) announcements took place during the American Library Association’s LibLearnX conference in Baltimore, Maryland.  For those interested in translations, one waits for the Mildred L. Batchelder Award, “for a children’s book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States.”   The 2024 YMA’s added a bit of extra translation excitement as the Stonewall and Printz Awards ..read more

In March 2024, Eerdmans Books for Young Readers will publish the English version of What Makes Us Human, a lyrical picture book about the importance of language and culture. Today World Kid Lit co-editor Jackie Friedman Mighdoll talks to the author Victor Santos. What Makes Us Human Jackie FM: What Makes Us Human has had an incredible journey from dPICTUS winner, to a special UNESCO partnership, publication around the world, and a White Ravens 2023 selection. Can you tell us how this came about? VS: As a professional linguist, picture book author, and father to two trilingual and multicul ..read more