Hello World!

Hello World

By: Jonathon Litton

I have been meaning to put a post up about this book for months!  I first came across it last summer at the Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor.  I sat for nearly half an hour paging through the book, flipping up the little tabs and being amazed by the myriad of languages that exist around the world. It took everything I had to walk out the door that day without it in my hands, but as I was continuing to amass translated texts at that time, I put this one on the wish list for the future.  I even put up a quick mention of it on my Facebook page then, noting how special and unique I thought it was so that I wouldn't forget to eventually come back to it and hoping that someone else might be inspired to pick it up as well.

A few days before Christmas, I walked into my kid's elementary school to volunteer for their class parties, stopping by the front office to sign in.  The ladies in the office stopped me, telling me "Santa" had stopped by and left something for me, handing me a wrapped package.  I was baffled to see my name scrawled on the paper and tore into it to find a brand new copy of this book!  As much as I questioned the staff, my family and friends, I have yet to learn who so generously gifted me a copy of this beautiful book.

The book is larger than your average picture book and each double page spread features one of the seven continents.  A small figure and a "lift a flap" element exists for languages on that continent.  The name of the language is on the outside, and when you flip it up the word "hello" in that language appears, along with a phonetic pronunciation and an indication of the number of people in that specific location that speak the language.

The book also has other fun facts and interesting details about the regions, native speakers, words from the language and demographic information.  The final two pages then share those same languages saying "Good-Bye"

I have spent hours with this book since it was so kindly gifted to me, flipping up each of the little tabs and trying out how to say "Hello" in languages from around the world.  I think there is immense potential for this book to be used in the classroom and would highly encourage any teachers out there to check it out.

Getting Excited!

It's been a whirlwind around here lately!  I'm halfway through my final semester as an Undergrad - the end is in sight!  But I have a couple of big events coming up related to my project.

On March 18th I will be presenting a workshop at the Michigan Reading Association's Annual Conference.  You can check out information about the conference here.  I am so excited for the opportunity to share these books with educators that have the direct ability to put them into the hands of kids!  Plus, I can't wait to listen to some of the other presenters and maybe even meet some of my writing idols like Jason Reynolds, Lois Lowry or Sharon Draper!

On March 23rd I will be presenting at Eastern Michigan's Undergraduate Symposium.  This event is open to the public and I highly suggest coming to check it out if you have the opportunity.  Event details can be found here   I am personally presenting at 9:15am, but the event lasts all day.  I had the opportunity on Tuesday night to touch base with some of the other presenters at a workshop and the plethora of information covering a wide variety of disciplines is mind-boggling.   I am so proud to be part of this event again this year.

On a more personal note, my journey in Children's Literature is far from over.  In December I was officially accepted into Eastern's Children's Literature Master's program!  This week I also was offered a full-time Graduate Assistantship position of which it took me all of a nano-second to shout YES to!  I will be an instructor of a section of First-Year Writing as well as serving as a TA in an Introduction to Children's Literature lecture. 

I've got a couple other books I hope to get up and posted this week, so keep an eye out for that.  If you'd like further information on either of these events, send me an email!

USBBY 2018 Outstanding International Booklist

It's award season in the land of Children's Lit (ALA awards are on February 12th!) and the United States Book Board for Young people just released their 2018 Outstanding International Booklist as well.   You can find it here if you're interested!

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in their picture book (I was using the K-2 designation) choices as less than half were translated titles.  While I understand that it's international books, not just translated materials, it seemed sharply skewed to titles from English speaking countries (Canada, UK and Australia).  And no love for South America.  On the other hand, I was excited to see titles from China and South Korea, suggesting that we may be seeing more translated titles from there to come!

From the list, I'm most excited to get my hands on Plume and Days with Dad as I've been reading great things about both titles!

There's A Word for That???

Best friends are awesome.  They get you sometimes when you don't get yourself.  They cheer you up, they encourage your pursuits, they make you laugh, they show up just when you need them.  And they bring you presents that are so perfectly you that it's eerie.  Like the book that showed up from my best friend, Colleen, this past Saturday.

This brand new book, What A Wonderful Word by Nicola Edwards and illustrated by Luisa Uribe is self-described as "a collection of untranslatable words from around the world."  The book explains that some words are common between languages and easily translatable - think that "Blue" in English easily becomes "Azul" in Spanish or "Mavi" in Turkish.  But what about a word or a phrase that is more tied to a way of life for a specific culture that may be unfamiliar to another so there's no direct word that translates?  This book is full of examples!

Since I got it, I have had so much fun pouring through these pages.  Do you know what a "Poronkusema" is?  Well, in Finnish it means the distance a reindeer can walk before needing to use the bathroom, which is no more than 4.7 miles. What about a "Pochemuchka"'?  That's Russian for a child who asks "why?" all the time; a person who asks too many questions.  I'm sure this is an idea that parents around the world can relate to but the Russian language has one specific word to represent the concept.  Both of these ideas are important to the culture, so much so that they have their own specific word.  The book goes on to detail that reindeer are so important in northern Finland, the language has around 400 words about the food, tools, and products created from the animal and that the phrase "I don't know" has been banned in a Serbian town to keep officials from making excuses,.  These specifics show WHY those languages have created a singular word to fit just that situation.  How amazing is language??

From Sanskrit to Hopi to Wagiman, there are plenty of examples of similar word to explanatory phrases.  I may start borrowing "gluggavendur" to describe Michigan winter as it is what they say in Iceland when the weather looks beautiful while you're inside but is much too cold when you step outside or perhaps remember to be so thankful that Colleen is my "nakama" what the Japenese refer to as friends who are like family. 

I'm enamored with the text and I think it is a wonderful representation of the power of language.  As the author writes in the introduction "It tells us what an interesting mix human beings are, and it reassures us that we are understood, that we're all the same on some level.  It's nice, isn't it, to know that someone else has had the same feeling or experience as you and given it, at long last, a name of its own?"   I highly suggest checking this book out!

A cultural connection or growing pains?

So I just couldn't stay away from blogging after I stumbled across this article the other day by based on a study out of the University of California Riverside, examining how lessons vary from culture to culture in picture books. The results were recently published in Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology examing a list of "learning-related" values and checked to see how often the books promoted them. The values included setting a goal to achieve something difficult, putting in a lot effort to complete the task and generally viewing intelligence as a trait that can be acquired through hard work rather than a quality that you're born with.

The researchers then studied picture books from the United States, China and Mexico to see how the lessons varied and how frequently each appeared in books from the different cultures. Researchers found that a heavy theme of these values appeared twice as frequently in the books from China as those from the United States. Further, books from the United States more prevalently had a theme or message about happiness.

You can read further into the study yourself, but I can't say, based on the books that I read and my own findings that I'm much surprised by the fact that there is a notable difference between the themes and messages in the books from place to place. I found that MANY times in all my reading.  I think that goes back to the idea of children and what role they play in each of those societies.

Another thought did strike me, though, based on what I found about the Children's book industry in China, back from when we talked about My Grandmother Lives In A Perfume Village. It was there that I learned that the children’s book market in China is a rapidly expanding industry, largely unrecognized until about the past fifteen years.  I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the content of the books being created and then researched in this study.  If you consider the texts that were first produced for children in England and America, they were extremely didactic in nature and leaned heavily on morals and teaching a specific lesson via the story.  I am curious if this is similar to the growth period for the industry in China.  As it is still evolving, is it experiencing similar growing pains as it attempts to define what children's literature means to the culture there?  I think as the study suggests, the culture itself plays a large part, but I'm wondering if as more and more books are produced in China if the strong moral bent to their literature for children will start to shift over time.  Definitely something to consider for a future rabbit hole ;-)

Down the Rabbit Hole...

I’ve been avoiding sitting down and writing this post for a few days now.  I’m not good at endings, which is rather problematic for my aspiring authorship dreams, as well as a number of other facets of my life.  But it’s the end of the semester, and it’s time to put a wrap on this little project of mine. 

Right?

Well…  Maybe?

As I reflect back on the journey I’ve been taking the last ten months, I can’t help notice that in many cases I think I’ve turned up more questions than answers.  Early on, I jokingly referred to it as “tumbling down a rabbit hole” because I likened it to all the oddities that Alice encountered in her pursuit of the White Rabbit which led her through his rabbit hole and into Wonderland.  I recognized that I was stepping off into uncharted territory and perhaps getting in over my head.  While I wanted to discover Wonderland, if you will, I first needed to accomplish the task at hand.

Now that I’ve done that, I’m anxious to go back and narrow my focus a little bit more on any of these specific “rabbit holes” that grabbed my attention early on.  I’m especially intrigued by the pairing of authors and illustrators from different countries like we saw with My Grandmother Lives In A Perfume Village.  Since that post I encountered a few other titles from countries other than China, that have similar unexplained pairings, and I’m wondering now if it was done for similar reasons.  If so is this a possible way to promote translated literature, at least in picture book form?  What about pairing another country’s beloved author with an American illustrator?  As I noted in that post, there are some potential cultural conflicts to consider, but it’s an interesting thought.

I’d also like to go back and spend a lot more time learning about regional language rights.  It was something I encountered on a few titles in my infamous poop post.    I still don’t understand why the same book would be published in the same language (English) with two completely different titles and just a few words changed otherwise.  I can see why this might happen for a longer text, but a picture book?  Some of those ideas I discussed that are used to “modify” texts from source to target language don’t really factor into a 600 word picture book.  That being the case, why two translations?  I’m sure there’s more to this specific rabbit hole, and I’d really like to learn more.

There were a number of other topics that I really was only able to break through the surface on that I’d like to go back and explore further.  I’d never heard of wimmelbooks before, but their concept fascinates me.  The artwork that I encountered in many of the books was worth a lot more research.  I especially enjoyed those by Kilaka, and a number of the handmade books offered by Tara Books, such as the trio by Nathan Kumar Scott paired with three different Indian illustrators and the absolutely gorgeous Drawing from the City.  Considering I found it rather last minute, I’d also like to go back and learn more about the codex art that originated in South America that was used in Migrant.

“What” is shared with young readers around the world, specifically in picture book format, which I discussed extensively during my controversy category could have been an entire independent study all of its own.  I really struggled to narrow down specific topics to look at and books to cover.  I’d like to investigate how different cultures “police” books or if they do at all.  What does it take for a children’s book to land on a banned list in other countries?

The deepest rabbit hole of them all, which has numerous off-shoots along the way, is why are there so few texts being translated and published in the United States?  And one step further, does it matter?  Are we (a collective we, as in the nation) so elite that we can’t learn or benefit from literature around the world?  I honestly don’t believe that’s the case, and along the way I’ve offered up a number of possibilities that all together, may at least shed some light on the matter.  But what I’ve managed to do here is kind of like when you see an iceberg; it’s looming and massive, but what’s seen about the surface of the water is only 10% of its entire mass.  This leads me to wonder then what else we might be missing.  To explore this gigantic rabbit hole would take way more than one semester, especially considering that it is constantly evolving and I don’t think there really is just one answer.

I guess what I’m trying to say in my own bumbling way is, this is not the end.  Maybe the end of my independent study that will earn me college credit (I’m really hoping for an A!) and further my undergraduate career, but not the end of my continuing to promote the importance of diversity in the world of children’s literature, including but not limited to, global diversity.  What I’ve realized along the way is that I love to learn.  I love to dig, I love to try to connect the dots and then offer up my own take on the picture they create.  I love to share my thoughts and ideas and then be able to listen to others around me for their perspective.  There is no one story, one way to view the world around us, no one person’s journey is exactly like another’s and I want to hear as many stories told in the voices they emanate from that I possibly can.

Somewhere along the way I began to realize that graduation in April was not “the end” for me either.  This project has been a piece of the bigger puzzle I’ve been putting together that is my future.  It has created new opportunities for me along the way.  I was so excited to have my first article published.  I’m looking forward to hopefully presenting at this year’s Undergraduate Symposium at Eastern Michigan University.  I also just recently learned that I will be presenting at the Michigan Reading Association’s Annual Conference in March!  Somehow, this piece has also contributed to me figuring out “what I want to be when I grow up.”  (I know, at 34 I’m a little behind the curve on this one.  Better late than never!)  When I enrolled at Eastern two years ago I really wanted to write.  While I still think that’s a part of my future, I think I may be able to make a bigger impact in the classroom.  I’ve long since known that I don’t have the patience, creativity and stamina to teach younger students who are the readers of the literature I love, but I thrive in a college setting.  I want to teach (and learn from!) those that do have the capacity to teach those younger minds.  If I can help instill a passion (or more than a tepid interest) in children’s literature for them, they can pass it on to the young readers that so need it.  I also hope that this would give me the ability to continue my research and writing in specific areas of children’s lit that fascinate and motivate me to keep learning and digging.  I’ve recently applied for the Graduate School at Eastern, and if I get in I will be pursuing my Master’s in Children’s Literature.  Eastern is one of the only school’s that offers this specialized degree.  Most others allow you to earn a degree in literature with a concentration in children’s literature, but Eastern’s program is structured uniquely.  I’ve also just submitted my application to be a Graduate Assistant, which would allow me to earn some classroom experience and learn from some of the amazing faculty at Eastern.  So I suppose in many ways, this is just the beginning.

I’ve also decided that this isn’t “the end” for my blog.  Every time I’ve sat down to write a post I have been reminded the joy that this type of writing brings me.  It allows me to be me.  And it gives me a platform to share what is meaningful in my life.  If people read it, wonderful.  If not, I enjoy the creative outlet.  I don’t think that I’ll be blogging as regularly as I have been – 2,500 word posts twice a week are exhausting! – and I don’t plan on restricting it strictly to translated picture books, but I am going to keep the blog up and running.  I intend to continue to share unique, diverse and meaningful books from the world of children’s literature.  I’d love for anyone interested to read along.  But, I’m sticking to Disclaimer #1!

Since I hatched this idea of mine almost a year ago, I have been blessed beyond measure by the support I have received along the way.  For whatever reason, she took a chance on me and added overseeing my project to an already full class load and busy life, Professor Jessica Kander has my deepest gratitude.  While I have mentioned numerous times along the way how patient, understanding and insightful (did I mention patient???) she has been, I know that I would have thrown the towel in or fallen down numerous rabbit holes along the way without her guidance.  She has believed in me, pushed me outside my comfort zone and helped me figure out that “what’s next” piece with her encouragement.  I’m also blessed to have quite the cheering section at home.  From my computer engineer husband who has been the first to read and edit all of my posts (oh, the irony) because he’s the only person who knows what I mean to say better than I do sometimes, to the two literary critics that call me “Mom,” they have been there every step of the way.  I’ve also had plenty of support from my extended family and friends who have listened to me babble about some of this endlessly and forgiven my absences as I’ve tried to juggle all my different responsibilities this semester.  Thank you also to those who have reached out with ideas, suggestions or just words of support and kindness. 

I don’t know anyone that lives a fairy tale existence, so it’s unrealistic to tie up what I began as “once upon a time” with “happily ever after.”  Nor do I think that it’s been a dream, as Alice does after falling down a rabbit hole and landing in Wonderland.  It’s been an adventure, for sure, but I’ve been wide-awake, learning and evolving along the way.  Besides, this isn’t the end, it’s just onward and perhaps down a few of those rabbit holes along the way. 

Just the Facts "And" Why It's Important

Up to this point, I’ve avoided talking facts and figures when it comes to translated literature in the United States.  My first intention was to share the fact that these books were even out there in the first place, something I readily admit I was fairly ignorant to until I began all this.  My second intention was to showcase how reading across borders is an often-overlooked aspect in promoting diversity in the world of children’s literature.  Thirdly, I wanted to ponder the myriad of “whys” that my first two intentions tend to generate.  In order to do that, we have to begin at the beginning and take a closer look at what’s actually being published in the United States annually in terms of translated literature.

 

But I’ve held out up until now because, well, because I find it slightly depressing.  Across all genres, translated literature makes up about 3% of the publishing industry in the United States.  Three Percent, a resource regarding international literature run by the University of Rochester, is a wonderful source of information, facts, figures and finer details.  They do a wonderful job keeping up with current trends in the industry and keeping a list of translated materials currently being published.  Unfortunately, their work doesn’t really delve into the genre of children’s literature.  But as a research tool, what they have to say is extremely important.

Especially given that the figure of 3% is slightly misleading.  That percentage includes ALL translated materials, which could include manuals, instruction booklets and other technical documents. If you then factor in the percentage of published materials that are reprints or classics, the amount of texts that are fiction or poetry by current living authors from around the world is a fraction of that percentage. 

A 2013 article from Publishing Perspectives sounded a call to “join the fight” for more translated titles to be brought to English speaking countries.  (The UK also lags far behind, with only about 4% of the publishing going to translated titles.  Could it be an English language connection?  What does that have to say about the perceived notions of Americans and the British about their literature?  I’m sensing a rabbit hole here, perhaps another blog, another day…)  The article cited statistics about some other country’s current translated publication trends, noting “in Poland a staggering 46% of books published are titles in translation, in Germany over 12%, in Spain around 24% and in France around 15%.”  These figures mostly hold true for the literature for adults, so what about for children?

I found this incredibly insightful article (and recent, written in July 2017) from translator Lyn Miller-Lachmann, whose work I acknowledged in my honorable mention category a few posts ago for her translation of Lines, Squiggles, Letters, Words.  In it, she discusses this summer’s American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Chicago, where she organized a panel for YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) titled “Reading the World: Selecting and Presenting Global Literature for Teens.”  For her introductory portion of the panel, she focused on the rationale for libraries collecting international books in translation, citing “statistics showing that in most of Europe and Asia, books in translation account for 30-50% of all children’s books published, whereas in the United States, the percentage was 3.7 in 2015 according to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center. That 3.7% was a vast improvement over 2003, when the percentage was 1.9.”  It is also worth noting that of all children’s books being translated, picture books make up the largest percentage.  So while there is hope, we are still far behind the rest of the world in general.

The question then becomes, what can we do about it?  The deficiency has been noted, so what power do we have to make publishers pay attention?  And what’s important to remember when looking for, choosing and reading translated titles?

• The most obvious is to make your choices know through the titles you’re purchasing.  Let’s be honest, sales matter.  Next time you’re going to expand your bookshelf, consider adding a translated title.  If you’re not able to purchase them yourself, ask your library to consider adding them to their buying list.  I’ve noted multiple times how difficult it is to get some of these titles, some with only one copy in all of the lending system in my home state of Michigan. 
• long that same line, share titles that you like with others.  Make them aware of how much you enjoyed the book and why.  I’ll get back to this point in a little bit, about how to share these books, but just know that it’s important to let your voice be heard.
• Seek out additional translated titles if you find an author you like, or an illustrator, or if you find yourself enjoying books from a certain country or region of the world.  I have included a list of wonderful references and starting points on the right-hand column of my blog.  Don’t get hung up on books that win awards or earn rave reviews – read what appeals to you.  I’m not saying that they’re not always worth those awards, but remember that what is deemed the “best” in these awards isn’t necessarily the “best” of what is out there.  Also remember that what the best a particular country, language, author or illustrator has to offer is not what we are seeing, as it’s never been translated.  Our perception is shaped by what small fraction makes its way to us.
•  Similar to that, remember that there are many ways to get “lost” along the way when reading a translation.  I discussed a number of them in this post and the three that followed.  Don’t dismiss a book simply because it seems “weird” or “foreign.”  It may require a little extra legwork or research on your part to figure out why it doesn’t seem quite right.  Or maybe it might not be your thing, and that’s completely OK!  We don’t like every book we pick up, no matter where it originated and that is perfectly acceptable.
• Pay attention to the details.  Remember that we’ve often discussed how important the role of the translator is and that they deserve to be credited for their work.  Seek out titles where you can find the name of the translator – if not on the cover or title page, at least in the copyright information.  When a person is credited it gives value to their work and an added value to the book as a whole.  You know one specific person did their best to credibly take a story from its source language to its target language.

How to share these titles has been something that I have been consciously aware of since I first started writing blog posts.  Back in September, I was just getting into the swing of research and blogging when I began to worry about my approach to sharing these books.  I wanted to present a realistic and balanced approach to the world of translated picture books, but I was worried that I was placing too much emphasis on reading any of these books “because” they were translated.  My goal had always been to share interesting books around the world, noting why they were significant and special, “and” that they were translated.  The internal struggle of “because vs. and” began to weigh heavily on me.  I shared my concerns with my family and few friends who reassured me that they knew well enough what my intentions were, but I was concerned that was not as evident to the average reader.

Overwhelmed, I turned to my amazing mentor, who offered me “so write about it.”  Whenever I’ve gotten stuck along the way she’s been a wonderful sounding board, so I immediately took her advice and crafted a post that lifted so much weight off my shoulders.  I showed it to her, telling her that I wanted to post it right away, before I really started sharing too many titles.  She suggested, instead, that I consider that this was better left for the end, as thoughts to share on how anyone reading this humble little blog of mine may re-evaluate their own views on why translated literature is important.  So I offer you the following, crafted by yours truly very early in September…

I think I’ve gotten hung up on semantics.  It’s not an uncommon theme for a writer – you hem, haw, brood, fret and worry about exactly the right word.  It needs to convey everything you mean, just how you mean it.  Right there in black and white.  It’s a daunting task when you’re verbalizing the words.  When you’re putting them on paper it can be terrifying.  And exhausting. 

I know because I’m exhausted.  I’ve been losing sleep and fretting about two little words and how they shape this project.  So much so that I wanted to address them in an unscheduled, off-category post.

According to my friend Webster, ‘because’ means “for the reason that; since.”  It implies that something happened, a choice was made, action was taken due to the fact that it was influenced by something else.  For me, it feels exclusive – cause and effect.  I see it as limiting, linear, without choice.  The only reason that the next action occurs.

On the opposite end of my current spectrum based on this perspective is the word “and.”  That word is used to link items together.  It does not give any additional weight to one over the other.  There isn’t a ranking or causation associated with “and” – each is of equal importance, it is just one more factor for consideration and merit.

Lately, I have been concerned that I am doing this project “because” they’re translated.  That the fact that they began in another language, in another country is enough to consider them worthy of note.  Even if that note is just some undergrad student sharing her viewpoints.  The more I’ve thought about it the more I worry that may be what I’m portraying through my blog.  That I’m encouraging readers to pick up these books ‘because’ they’re translated.

I hope not.  I hope that after you read a post or after you (I hope!) read one of these or other translated titles on your own that you read it for its own experience; enjoying it for its uniqueness, beauty, perspective ‘and’ as an additional consideration, it’s translated.

I will readily admit that when I first started finding books I was in the ‘because’ category.  That’s what I needed to do at that time to begin to stockpile materials.  That was what originally interested me, reading it for this project ‘because’ it was translated.  But once I found them and as I began to think about how to share my findings I moved strongly into the ‘and’ camp.  I never want to insinuate that I think anyone should reading some of these books ‘because’ they’re translated texts.  That is unfair and limiting.  It is, as I was recently reminded by my wise advisor, reminiscent of what novelist Chimamanda Adichie describes in her TED talk as “The Danger of a Single Story.”  That is a dangerous path to travel down, one that is definitely not the intention of what I am trying to do here.

As I’ve said and will continue to say, I am learning.  I don’t have all the answers.  I don’t know everything (though according to my kids my Mom does!).  I’m simply excited, elated, thrilled and honored to shed a little light on what is such a niche market in the world of literature.  I don’t want to do that ‘because’ of what it is, I want to shed the light on it ‘and’ show how special that makes it.

Semantics it may be but hopefully I’ll sleep better tonight.

I have to admit that I smiled and got warm-fuzzies reading this back.  After nearly thirty posts, I have no doubt about my own intentions anymore.  It is my hope that message has been conveyed.  I additionally hope that this is how you may consider sharing translated titles with others as you find them.  Especially with young readers.  It is so important to allow the readers these picture books are “intended for” to make their own decisions about them, and to react as they will without preconceived notions.  I’ve personally found one of the best way to share a translated picture book with young readers (and a good number of adults, for that matter) is to sometimes let that detail go unmentioned until after they have read it.  Then it can be pointed out that it was translated, where it is from, what they liked and noticed.  If we gatekeepers don’t give an indication that a book is “weird” or “different” or “foreign” we give them power to react freely.  Perhaps they will find something they like, pass it along and it will have a domino effect.  It might not be earth-shattering, but the more awareness that is brought to the importance of diverse reading, including globally diverse reading, the more the publishing industry will (hopefully!) start to take note.

One last post.  I honestly can’t believe it.  What am I going to do with myself after this is all over?  And what about all those rabbit holes?  Another blog, another day?  I’ll be back here Tuesday with the answer to some of those questions.  And probably a whole lot more questions…