British project to find the world's new children's classics

Pippi Longstocking is originally from Sweden, Heidi lived on a slope of a Swiss mountain and thus thousands of the characters of children's stories came from different parts of the world. These are the stars of children's literature who have crowned bookstores for many years. However, Where are the new international children's stories that adorn every child's headboard?

In a push against the view that the first job always starts in the English language, it has been decided start a campaign to bring translations of more books found throughout the world into English.

Emma Langley, an international literary expert from Arts Council England, commented on the importance of searching for these works throughout the world in order to bring them to other languages ​​so that they are not lost over time and because they are found in a lesser language. known.

“There are many other written languages ​​on this planet and we know that the best books cannot all start in English. Simply We will lose them if we don't find them "

This project that is starting is the BookTrust project which has been founded by ACE and intends to pay for the translations of 10 outstanding foreign works shown to English publishers at the Bologna book fair in Italy next spring. In this way, a trust is established between publishers and agents to present their best work related to books to an audience of children between 6 and 12 years old. These books will be judged by a panel of experts chaired by critic Nicolette Jones and includes Langley, Sarah Ardizzone and Daniel Hahn.

"We want to bring the best possible art to England, which means the best children's books to translate. This forces you to open your horizons, but I was not thinking about that when I enjoyed reading about Asterix or the adventures of Jules Verne as a child. The question is where are we going to find the Asteris today? There are a lot of us wondering about this problem, so it's great that something practical happens to find it. "

It has been shown that When the right books are made available to the public, young audience numbers increase..

“The key is to get samples of a translated text and then have it read and recommended by some trusted critics. However, it is not easy to find British publishers who can read well in other languages ​​due to the global dominance of English. In other countries, publishers are more likely to read books in English "

For Langley, the key to success lies in fostering working relationships with translators in charge of these books.

“He is a specialist and a very important part of this type of publication and will have a crucial role in the Booktrust project. We are playing a very long game, but this is the first step. If we can get editors to read these samples, it will be a big step forward. Just having the samples on their desks will make it easier because right now they are very busy and have a lot to read. "

While British parents are generally happy to receive foreign classics of young adult literature, they may not be aware of the existence of other great children's books that are in other languages ​​and that they can't access.  This is a problem that is due to the fact that publishers are usually not available to travel looking for these works.

However, not all the books in this foreign book translation project have to become future classics, but an entertaining reading also has its place. There is an immense amount of books that are not in English, the most international language, and that without a doubt we are all letting go.