by Paula Holmes

One month ago, January 22, the 2024 Youth Media Award (YMAs) announcements took place during the American Library Association’s LibLearnX conference in Baltimore, Maryland.  For those interested in translations, one waits for the Mildred L. Batchelder Award, “for a children’s book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States.”  

The 2024 YMA’s added a bit of extra translation excitement as the Stonewall and Printz Awards also included translated titles!! Two of the Batchelder Honors were also on the USBBY 2024 Outstanding International Book List. All Batchelder titles are included as part of the ALSC 2024 Notable Children’s Books.  It is outstanding that translations (and their translators) were seen in multiple best lists and awards.

Here are this year’s Batchelder Award and Honor Book titles with reactions from their translators:

And the winner is:

Houses with a Story:  A Dragon’s Den, a Ghostly Mansion, a Library of Lost Books, and 30 More Amazing Places to Explore 
Written and illustrated by Seiji Yoshida
Translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash
Translated from the Japanese
Published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams.

From Jan Mitsuko Cash: I’m honored to have worked on a book that won the Batchelder, and I’m grateful to the wonderful people at Abrams for giving me the opportunity. I’ve translated nearly two hundred books, and I believe this is the first one to have won an award! I hope that this means more of Seiji Yoshida’s work will be brought into English and that more translations will receive recognition in the English-speaking world.

This year, the Batchelder committee selected three honor books:

The House of the Lost on the Cape 
Written by Sachiko Kashiwaba 
Illustrated by Yukiko Saito
Translated by Avery Fischer Udawaga
Translated from the Japanese
Published by Yonder: Restless Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Restless Books.

From Avery Fischer Udagawa: “It is wonderful to see Sachiko Kashiwaba’s The House of the Lost on the Cape appear on the OIB list and among the Batchelder Honor books! This story of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami was written by a resident of Tōhoku, initially for young survivors of the disaster; it was serialized in the Junior Weekly section of a regional newspaper in 2014–15. It then became a book, available to readers throughout Japan. Now—thanks to Restless Books, USBBY and ALSC—it will reach many young readers in the United States. I would like to congratulate Jan Mitsuko Cash, translator of this year’s Batchelder Award winner, and ask the publisher to credit her on the cover of future editions.”

Later, When I’m Big 
Written by Bette Westera
Illustrated by Mattias De Leeuw
Translated by Laura Watkinson
Translated from the Dutch
Published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers 

From Laura Watkinson: “I’m delighted that Later, When I’m Big has received this wonderful recognition. The illustrator, Mattias De Leeuw, and I did two storytelling sessions at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, and it was so good to see young readers getting involved with this story about being small and making exciting plans for the future – and maybe, one day, being big and brave enough to swing on a trapeze or brush a lion’s teeth. Bette Westera, the author, created a story that’s fun to read – and to read aloud. She’s a perfect match for Mattias’s flamboyant and energetic artwork. It’s been a pleasure to work with them both, and, as always, with the awesome editor Kathleen Merz at Eerdmans, who are true champions of translated children’s stories. In short, this book was a joy to translate. The Batchelder Honor was the cherry on top!”

An extra celebration is in order for Laura’s fifth Batchelder and her seventh Notable Award. Kathleen Merz, Editorial Director at Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, had this to say about Laura’s work: “We sometimes have a rough translation to look at …when we’re evaluating a new project, and it’s even better if we can bring in a translator to weigh in with their professional opinion. Laura Watkinson has been a fantastic partner in helping make these kinds of calls; she’s got a great sense for what’s a good fit for our list, what has the potential to work for a US audience, and (most critically) what makes for a great book.”

Pardalita 
Written and illustrated by Joana Estrela
Translated by Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Translated from the Portuguese
Published by Em Querido, an imprint of Levine Querido

From Lyn Miller-Lachmann: “The Batchelder Honor for Pardalita is my first ALA Youth Media Award. Pardalita is my seventh translation from Portuguese to English, and I’m also the author of eight books ranging from picture books to YA. That’s 15 eligible books in all, and I would tell other authors and translators that the process is competitive and unpredictable, and the only thing you can control is taking on challenges and giving your best of yourself with every project. One of the biggest challenges of translating Pardalita is that it’s a hybrid graphic novel and verse novel. I’ve been told that verse novels are hard to translate, but I also write verse novels, which gave me the confidence and experience to take on this project. The key for me was capturing Raquel’s first person voice, both her recollections growing up of her parents’ divorce, her father’s new girlfriend, and her long friendship with Luísa, and her present-day attraction to this older girl at her school and what that means for her in the future. Translating Pardalita brought me back to my high school years as a somewhat aimless teenager dealing with crushes and first romance and feeling that the future was coming at me too quickly.”

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, has been administering the Batchelder Award since the mid-1960s. The history and the criteria for the award can be found in the Revised July 2023 Batchelder Award manual. ALSC maintains a PDF of all Batchelder Award and Honor books from 1968 to the present. The USBBY as the U.S. national section of IBBY has honored Outstanding International Books since 2006. The 2024 Outstanding International Book List has 41 titles. 

I could not leave the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Michael L. Printz Award and the Rainbow Roundtable Stonewall Awards out of this update.  It is typical for people to reach out to me about the Batchelder as I have made it known throughout the years of my partiality to the award.  What was interesting this year was the number of people who noticed and let me know when translations won awards or received acclaim in categories that were not specifically for translations.  Bringing translations to a wider audience is worth special mention. 

The Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults. The committee named as an honor book:

Fire from the Sky
Written by Moa Backe Åstot
Translated by Eva Apelqvist
Translated from the Swedish
Published by Em Querido, an imprint of Levine Querido

The Stonewall Book Awards recognize works of exceptional merit relating to the LGBTQIA+ experience. The Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s Literature Award winner for 2024 is:

Cross My Heart and Never Lie
Written and illustrated by Nora Dåsnes
Translated by Matt Bagguley
Translated from the Norwegian
Published by Hippo Park, an imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers

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Paula Holmes has served in a variety of volunteer capacities for the Association for Library Service to Children (a division of the American Library Association), USBBY (The United States Board on Books for Young People) and currently as a University of Alabama MLIS National Advisory Board Member. Paula is known to create tiny collage art, support translations of children’s literature, practice ballet, and is on a quest to learn Finnish.