by Megan Farr

To date, there have been few translated children’s books published in Wales from languages other than English, with the key exception of Dref Wen in the 1970s and 80s, and more recently Dalen who specialises in publishing Asterix and Tintin into Welsh. The handful of translated children’s books that have been recently published tell an interesting tale of the challenges and opportunities of discovering international stories to bring into Wales. 

For this post, I have selected three children’s books that have been recently translated into Welsh or English from other languages and published in Wales, importing children’s literature from French (Québec), German (Switzerland) and Latvian (Latvia). 

Each book was discovered in different ways, Y Lloches (L’abri/The Shelter) via a reader recommendation; Y Parsel Coch (Das rote Paket/The Red Parcel) via a translated children’s literature panel discussion and Dog Town (Maskačkas stāsts) via recommendation through Latvian Literature. 

All three books were translated directly into Welsh and English from the source languages with financial support from the Books Council of Wales and Latvian Literature. All three books enrich the children’s literature in Wales, bringing stories of refugee bears, a parcel that spreads kindness and talking dogs that save a district from gentrification. 

These books form part of a series of case studies in importing children’s literature into Wales, part of my PhD which is researching ‘Strategic Action for Internationalising Children’s Publishing in Wales’ based on case studies in import, export and co-production. 

For more books published in translation in Wales catch up with other articles on the WKL blog here and here. 

Y Lloches

Y Lloches (original title L’abri or The Shelter) by French writer Céline Claire and Chinese Canadian illustrator Qin Leng is a thoughtful picture book about the importance of kindness and sharing.

The book tells the story of two polar bears who arrive in the middle of a storm looking for shelter and food. The other animals in the wood refuse to help them apart from a young fox who offers them a lantern. Once the snow settles, the bears make themselves an igloo shelter and give refuge to the fox family whose house has collapsed in the storm. 

Y Lloches was brought to the attention of Rily through a reader recommendation and the translator translated directly from the original French text, creating a lyrical text in Welsh rather than a word for word translation from English.  

Beautifully published on thick uncoated paper with French flaps with a message from the translator, Y Lloches has been used widely in schools in Wales with workshops for children about the key themes.

Y Parsel Coch

Y Parsel Coch (The Red Parcel) by Italian author Linda Wolfsgruber and illustrator Gino Alberti is a classic picture book originally written and published in German (Das rote Paket) in 1987 by the Swiss publisher Bohem who republished the book in 2017. 

Carreg Gwalch bought the Welsh language rights after the book was recommended for translation by a panelist on an online discussion about Christmas books from around the world organised by Wales Literature Exchange and hosted by the online National Eisteddfod AmGen 2020.

The story is of a child and her grandmother who notices that some people are unhappy in the village she is visiting at Christmas and makes them a red parcel with the instruction not to open the gift but to give it to someone else who might appreciate it, and so this continues through the story until the parcel is returned to the grandmother when she is leaving the village. The act of giving and receiving the gift transforms the village.

The illustrations are simple and evocative, drawn using a soft pastel palette that give the picture book a timeless feel. The book is beautifully produced, printed on uncoated paper with a hard-back linen cover. The wrap-around card contains instructions to make your own red parcel to give to someone else, extending the message from the story into the real world. 

Dog Town

Dog Town by Luīze Pastore, illustrated by Reinis Pētersons and translated into English by Žanete Vēvere Pasqualini is a love letter to Riga and the Maskatchaka district, published by Firefly Press in 2018 thanks to a generous grant from Latvian Literature. 

This award-winning middle-grade novel tells the story of Jacob Bird, a lonely boy who loves maps and is sent to stay with his grumpy cousin Mimi and eccentric Uncle Eagle in the run-down Maskatchaka district of Riga whilst his dad works over the summer. When it transpires that the district has been bought by the evil Skyler Scraper who wants to transform it into a concrete jungle, Jacob and Mimi help the local pack of talking dogs from stopping the wicked scheme.

Originally published in Latvian as Maskačkas stāsts (A Tale of the Maskachka District) by Neputns in 2013, Dog Town was discovered by Firefly Press’s publisher Penny Thomas on a Latvian-funded publisher trip to Latvia in the lead-up to London Book Fair 2018 which had a market focus on the Balkan states. The book was launched at the fair and had critical acclaim in the UK.  

Meet Megan Farr

Megan Farr is a part-time Lecturer in Publishing at Bath Spa University, where she teaches modules on their MA Children’s Publishing and BA Publishing courses. She is currently completing PhD research into ‘Strategic Action for Internationalising Children’s and YA Publishing in Wales’ with the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. She enjoys finding out more about the growing bilingual children’s publishing industry in Wales and looking into strategies to internationalise it. Megan speaks Italian and French and is currently learning Welsh. She has just passed her B1 Welsh exam and is very happy about that! If she could travel anywhere in the world, it would probably be Papua New Guinea as she has always had a fascination with the country and would love to see the birds-of-paradise. Megan lives by the sea in Penarth, south Wales, with her husband, two daughters, goldfish and two ginger cats, Toast and Sunny, commonly known as the ‘ginger sisters’.