Translating Children's Literature by Gillian Lathey (review)

The translation of children's literature is a field of growing complexity and is of interest to anyone working with books or with children, especially researchers and students of children's literature or cultural studies, editors, and publishing houses. The more this field of international importance comes into the foreground, the more urgent the specific questions concerning translation of books for children seem to appear. Gillian Lathey, a renowned scholar in the field of translation of children's literature, recognized these challenges and addressed the most relevant in her book Translating Children's Literature.

Lathey's experience as a judge of the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation and as the Director of the National Centre for Research in Children's Literature at Roehampton University London gives her the appropriate status to discuss not only the role of the translator in the field of books for children but also the process of translating literature aimed at children. Her study Translating Children's Literature (2016) builds on her previous book, The Role of Translators in Children's Literature: Invisible Storytellers (2010). The author has thus been consolidating the position of translation of children's literature in the academic field of translation studies. The publication of this study within the series Translation Practices Explained seems to testify that translating for children has been ranked among the translation fields that deserve special attention. Today, more than ever, translation for non-adult audiences requires specialization in all media, including the audio-visual and electronic ones. Accordingly, the challenges that translators of various types of texts for children have to face lead to the acknowledgement that they should be helped in their aspiration to become successful translators in their special sector.

In order to facilitate these complex endeavors, Lathey addresses all types of students of translation, including self-learners. She empowers them by pointing to various aspects of books for children, particularly to the fluidity between adult and non-adult fiction, and by stressing the inherent dual address of most books aimed at children. According to her, conveying this adult-child duality may be the particular challenge of translating children's literature. However, in order to give a broader insight into the issues of translating for children, the author complements her analysis and conclusions with the expert opinion of others—such as scholars, critics, authors, illustrators, and translators. For example, she quotes Jill Paton Walsh's consideration of translation for children and compares passages from Roald Dahl's short story for adults The Champion of the World and its version for children, Danny: The Champion of the World.

Lathey's study is particularly significant as it examines translated texts from all five continents and refers to works written in more than ten different languages. Readers will not only learn about the features of the translation of children's classics like Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh or Collodi's Pinocchio, but they are also offered excerpts from several texts in both the source language and the target version.

However, this work is not only a scholarly study but also a practical guide assisting future translators or those desiring to improve their translation skills. It offers exercises, discussion points, and further readings. Such a didactic apparatus containing various types of helpful practical suggestions as well as implicit and explicit advice to readers presents an invaluable stimulus for effective work. It will also encourage students to read widely across children's literature to consider in a responsible way the themes discussed and to properly prepare for the challenges confronting translators.

Translating Children's Literature can, therefore, be seen as essential reading for anyone working on the translation of children's literature internationally and as an empowering text for further studies of translation of children's literature on national levels.