Are you a publisher on the look out for great books for children and young adults from across the globe? Are you excited about publishing fantastic stories in English translation? Then look no further! This week, World Kid Lit celebrates London Book Fair by bringing you a few suggestions we think readers (of all ages) will love. Today our community suggests books in Japanese and Arabic!

JAPANESE BOOKS

A Tokyo Firebombing Tale (東京大空襲ものがたり)

Translation Funding: Japan Foundation

Review:  A Tokyo Firebombing Tale (historical middle-grade fiction) centers on a utility pole that became a peace memorial in Tokyo’s Taitō Ward—an area decimated in the March 10, 1945 firebombing by nearly 300 U.S. B-29 bomber planes that left some 100,000 people dead and over one million homeless. This novel opens in 1980s Tokyo, with siblings Yukari and Shinichi wondering why their aunt Sakiko spends hours staring at a burned utility pole. When they learn that the charred pole will soon be removed, their father Yūta shares his firebombing experience: on March 10, he and his family tried to escape the fires, but only Yūta and older sister Sakiko survived. Sakiko’s infant disappeared in the firestorm while being handed up to Yūta who was climbing a utility pole to escape flames. Yukari and Shinichi gain new understanding of their father, their aunt’s behaviors, and the utility pole. After Aunt Sakiko dies from a fall, and Shinichi and Yukari receive a baby-sling tie Aunt Sakiko’d saved and cherished, they realize there’s another memento to save—the charred utility pole. The pole is removed from its park location and placed on their street corner to become a memorial to those who died and a reminder for all to bravely cultivate peace. The novel, revealing the courage and oft-hidden pain of survivors and narrated tenderly by the author, is accompanied by endearing illustrations by animator Seiji Arihara. Perfect for classrooms and children contemplating world events and peace action, with author’s note, backmatter and sidebars.  

Author bio: Katsumoto Saotome (1932–2022) was 12 on March 10, 1945. After surviving the war, he found factory work, then began writing, determined that air raid experiences not be forgotten. He wrote about the firebombing throughout his life, and with other survivors, compiled volumes of survivor accounts. Saotome raised funds to build the Center for the Tokyo Air Raids and War, an educational resource for learning about the March 10 air raid and the many 1945 air raids that decimated 67 cities of Japan. At the Center, all people may contemplate ways to foster peace; Saotome served as director until 2019. 

Toya’s Moving Days [トヤのひっこし]

Translation Funding: Japan Foundation

Review: Toya and her nomadic herding family must move their ger, furniture, camels, goats, sheep, horses, cows, dog, foods, supplies and themselves, across the Mongolian steppe to find new grazing land. Along the way they encounter wolves, intense desert heat, a storm that threatens to break up the herd, towering mountains, plus some kind people. After walking for many days, their animals break into a trot. Soon Toya sees why—they’ve arrived at a lake surrounded by fresh grazing land. The family sets up the ger and settles in for the summer. 

Created by the award-winning husband-and-wife Mongolian creative team of Ganbaatar Ichinnorov and Bolormaa Baasansuren, this book portrays in endearing detail traditional nomadic lifestyles and the expanse of the Mongolian steppe. Readers of all ages will linger on illustrations and return to study each full landscape spread to spot Toya and discover the minute details of family activity, herd animals, and wildlife. Readers experience visually the varied terrain and dramatically shifting palette as the family travels across grassland, desert and mountains of the steppe eco-region. Dynamic illustrations and warm family interactions draw children into Toya’s moving experience in this story of traditional,  disappearing, nomadic life in Mongolia. The Japan- and Mongolia-based Mongolian creators have long collaborated with translator Noriko Tsuda to publish their original picture book works as a three-person team in Japan. Their intricately illustrated books that offer windows into Mongolian culture, ecosystems and history deserve to be introduced to English-language readers. 

Author Bio: Ganbaatar Ichinnorov is a graduate of the School of Fine Arts of the Mongolian University of Arts and Culture, and completed a research student program at Bunkyo University, Saitama, Japan. In 2004, he received the Encouragement Prize in the 14^th Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations in 2004. He creates picture books in collaboration with his wife Bolormaa). Titles include Okaasan to warui kitsune (Mother and the Bad Fox), Toya no hikkoshi (Toya’s Moving Days), Ryū ōsama no takaramono (The Dragon King’s Treasure), and Mongoru daisōgen 800 nen (800 Years on the Mongolian Steppe) (all published by Fukuinkan Shoten).

Illustrator Bio: Bolormaa Baasansuren is a graduate of the School of Fine Arts of the Mongolian University of Arts and Culture, and completed a research student program at Bunkyo University, Saitama, Japan. In 2004, her story Boku no uchi wa ger (My house is a ger) won the Grand Prize in the 14th Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations and was selected for the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition, and won various additional awards. She creates picture books in collaboration with her husband Ganbaatar (above). Titles include Mongoru no kuroi kami (Legend of the wives’ hair; Sekifusha, 2004), Otsuki-sama ni iru no wa dare? (Who is in the Moon?; Bunkyo University Press, 2010), and many others. 

Mongolian to Japanese Translator Bio: Noriko Tsuda graduated from Waseda University in Tokyo, then studied Mongolian and children’s literature in Mongolia and completed a Masters course at the graduate school of Ulaanbaatar University. She has been active in introducing Mongolian children’s literature to Japan, and works as the translator of the picture book collaborations of Ganbaatar and Bolormaa, above.

Qties (スペシャルQトなぼくら)

Translation Funding: Japan Foundation

Review: Q stands for “questioning.” 8th-grader Nao always thought he was a “normal” boy, but one day on his way home, he spots a girl coming out of the men’s room—or is it *squint* the top student in his class, Kuze, dressed in cute clothes with girly makeup on?! Far from finding it off-putting, he’s charmed and envious, and it’s from there that he begins to explore his identity alongside Kuze through fashion and cosmetics. Then, when he starts feeling like he might have feelings for his friend…? Qties is the story of a special bond between two Q cuties written with tremendous warmth and care. Shortlisted for the Noma Prize for Juvenile Literature. Full summary and two sample English chapters available. 

Author Bio: Kazusa Kisaragi was born in 1983 in Gunma Prefecture. Graduated from Tokyo University’s College of Arts and Sciences. Won the Kodansha Award of Children’s Literature for Newcomers with Sanagi no miru yume (Chrysalis dreams; Kodansha). Won the Junior Adventure Novel Prize for Misuteriasu sebunsu: fūin no nana fushigi (Mysterious seventh: the sealed seven mysteries; Iwasaki Shoten). Won the Japanese Association of Writers for Children Prize for Newcomers for Kaeru no utahime (The frog singer; Kodansha). He’s also the author of a number of other works including Kyūshoku ansanburu (School lunch ensemble; Mitsumura Tosho). 

Bonbalbon: The Most Polite Monster in the World (せかいいちれいぎただしいかいじゅう　ボンバルボン)

Translation Funding: Japan Foundation

Review: One day a giant monster appears off the coast. When the most distinguished person in town rushes over, the monster says, “Pleased to meet you. My name is Bonbalbon,” presents a gift of fresh tuna, and asks if he can come up on land to sunbathe. When he gets the okay, he makes sure to hold onto his tail so he doesn’t accidentally knock over any buildings. While he’s napping, a hero shows up to defeat him, but the most distinguished person in town sends him away because Bonbalbon is a good monster. His mom eventually pops out of the sea to call him for dinner, and his dad shows up with a thank-you gift. Bonbalbon: The Most Polite Monster in the World is an adorable story that winks at Godzilla and Ultraman. Q-rais’s illustrations alone are enough to make anyone crack a smile. 

Author bio: Q-rais was born in 1985 in Tochigi Prefecture. Tokyo Zokei University graduate. Manga, picture book, and animation creator. Works include the manga Nekonohii (Nekonaughy; Kadokawa), Sukiusagi (Akita Shoten), and Higuma (Sad bear; LINE DIGITAL Frontier) as well as picture books such as Don Ussa sora o tobu (Don Rabb goes flying), Ninjinjin (Carrot person; both from Hakusensha), and Abareneko (Rowdy cat; Kadokawa).

Arabic Books

The Mystery of the Glass Ball

Review: This fast-paced, middle-grade sci-fi adventure, set in the near future, follows Ghassan and Sofia, unlikely friends who team up to save the desert while travelling on a vintage train with their grandfathers. On the train, Ghassan and Sofia overhear an evil plot to destroy a desert oasis in order to build a holiday resort. Ghassan wants to save the animals that his grandfather has fought to protect his whole life as a ranger. Sofia wants to save her grandfather’s invention, a glass ball that produces solar energy and water at the same time, which the criminals plan to steal as part of their plot. But how will two children stop the money-hungry criminals, and can they overcome their differences to survive in the desert together?

Ghassan’s witty first-person narration propels the reader through a story that is as much about friendships despite differences as it is about protecting nature. Ghassan is a boy of routine who has spent his whole life in his (unnamed, Arab) country of origin, while Sofia is of mixed heritage and spends her time travelling the world. While Ghassan first assumes he could never call Sofia a friend, he practically takes a bullet for her by the book’s conclusion. 

This book won a 2022 Sheikh Zayed Book Award and is eligible for the organisation’s translation grant – open to publishers outside the Arab world.

Author Bio: Maria Dadouche is a children’s author and screenwriter based between the United States and Syria, who has published over 50 books. She has received the Claire Carmichael Scholarship for Fiction, the Katara Prize for Arabic Novels, the Khalifa Award for Educational Creativity, the Shoman Award for Science Fiction, the Arab Publishers’ Forum Prize, the Daybreak Award for Picture Books, and was featured on the Etisalat Prize shortlist. Dadouch’s screenwriting includes the comedy series Maraya and the animation channel Spacetoon. She also worked as editor-in-chief for the children’s magazine Fulla. She has a BA in Creative Writing from the University of California.

Dragon of Bethlehem 

Review: Huda El Shuwa’s popular and acclaimed 2017 Dragon of Bethlehem is about looking up at the sky, seeing things from a new vantage point, and how—even when things seem hopeless—it’s possible to change the small things around you to make life better. In 2018, it was turned into a musical narrative by Faraj Sulaiman, and presented by narrator Fida’ Zaidan and the The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music.

The story focuses on a boy named Khidr who’s just turned 16, and who lives in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp south of Bethlehem. Khidr has recently lost his only friend, isn’t a good student, and his father is in a psychiatric hospital. The other kids at school bully him, and the teachers aren’t much kinder. Khidr meets a sarcastic dragon (or rather, the dragon barges into his tiny camp house during the rain, because dragons do not like rain) who takes him up into the skies above Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and the surrounding areas to show him his world afresh. Although at first his teachers just punish him even more for his new creativity, Khidr is not deterred, and eventually even goes to visit his father at the psychiatric hospital and in an exciting final scene confronts his bully, Marwan.

There are excerpts available on ArabLit and Words Without Borders.

Author Bio: Hooda El Shuwa is a Kuwaiti-Palestinian writer living in Kuwait. She is the recipient of the 2008 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Children’s Literature as well as Kuwait’s 2018 National Prize for Children’s Literature. Her books include The Birds’ Journey to Mount Qaf, The Animals vs the Humans at the Court of the King of the Jinn, The Yellow Man, The Secret Revealer, The Elephant’s Journey, Apollo on Gaza Beach, and The Dragon of Bethlehem. She is the founder of Taqa Productions, which creates and produces Arabic theatrical projects and puppet theater in Kuwait and the Middle East. 

My Dragon

Review: My Dragon is a charming and imaginative picture book that tells the story of a little boy and his imaginary friend: a gentle dragon. The boy and dragon have one adventure after another: they garden together, fly through the clouds, and play hide and seek. At bedtime, the reader discovers that the dragon is the boy’s stuffed animal. 

The story is told in rhyming couplets, with repetition of the dragon’s name (Shushuya) at the start of each couplet evoking a variation on pre-Islamic Arabic ghazal poetry. With tender yet evocative illustrations, this 30-page picture book is sure to delight and captivate young readers.

Author Bio: Bassam Altaji was born in 1967 in Kuwait. As a child, he dreamt of building and piloting a flying machine, and he loved to make up stories to tell neighborhood children. He is the author of numerous children’s books, including The Fisherman, The Adventure of the Three Ducks, and Salwa On the Way to School. He studied and lived in Hungary for 23 years, and now lives in Jordan.

Illustrator Bio: Charlotte Shama is a French illustrator, married to a Palestinian, and has been living in the Middle East with her family and pens for many years now. After studying applied arts and animation in France and England, she worked as a volunteer in an Arabic-speaking school, a press photographer, a librarian, and an art teacher. Finally, Charlotte returned to her passion and is now a freelance illustrator.