The Translation of Children's Literature

In the last few decades a number of European scholars have paid an increasing amount of attention to children’s literature in translation. This book not only provides a synthetic account of what has been achieved in the field, but also makes us fully aware of all the textual, visual and cultural complexities that translating for children entails. Apart from few important Scandinavian studies of children’s literature in translation, students of this subject have had problems in finding a book that attempted an up-to-date and comprehensive review of the field. Gillian Lathey’s Reader does just this; it investigates a whole range of textual, visual and cultural issues that translating literature for children entails.

-- Dr Piotr Kuhiwczak, Director, Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies University of Warwick.

This reader will offer valuable information and inspiration to scholars familiar with the field and newcomers alike.

* Jochen Weber, Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature, Vol 45, No. 3, 2007 *

Covering almost three decades of research in the wide field of writing and translating for children, calling into play the contributions of scholars involved in the study of children's literature, of the translation of books but also audiovisual texts and, last but not least, the reflections of several distinguished translators, the volume provides a thorough overview of the most significant steps taken in the exploration of this often neglected world. On the whole, resulting from an accurate selection of contributions to the hardly-ever-explored field of translating for children, the volume manages to bring to the fore all the relevant issues and theoretical standpoints, providing thorough background while also highlighting the latest research paths. Furthermore, it proves to have an additional –and uncommon– twofold value: it makes an essential reading for those who approach the translation of children's literature for the first time, but it also stands out as a compendium of the most relevant contributions by scholars inside and outside Europe.

* Elena Di Giovanni, University of Macerata, in JOSTrans Issue