Where to Look for Batchelder Books: Start here

I haven't been as diligent in keeping a record of the children's books in translation published in 2015, let alone those eligible for the Batchelder Award, as I would have liked to be (it's a reading and blogging resolution for 2016, though! Watch this space). Last year's winner was Mikis and the Donkey by Bibi Dumon Tak, illustrated by Philip Hopman and translated by Laura Watkinson; published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers in 2014. It was also my favorite, and now I want a miniature Mediterranean donkey. 

Looking ahead, good places to find potential Batchelder books are smaller publishing houses like Eerdmans and Enchanted Lion Books, both of whom make consistently beautiful and important books. (The same is true of Canadian publishers Groundwood Books and Kids Can Press; they are, however, ineligible for the Batchelder, which is awarded to an American publisher).

Graphic novels seem to be translated relatively frequently, so First Second (an imprint of Roaring Brook Press), Graphic Universe (a division of Lerner Publishing Group), and TOON Graphics are also possibilities.

You might look the for the work of individual translators such as Laura Watkinson, who translates into English from Dutch, Italian, and German.

And of course, translated books can be published by larger (and smaller) publishing houses, or published as e-books, which are eligible for the Batchelder this year as part of a pilot program.

I'll be back tomorrow with a (sadly short!) list of children's books in translation published in 2015.

Casual Caldecott

Eek! We're just a week away from the announcement of the 2016 ALA youth media awards, in Boston on Monday, January 11 at 8am. I've organized a couple of Mini-Mock Caldecotts at my house in the past, and they've been lots of fun--and work! This year, I'm thinking about doing something a little simpler, more of a Casual Caldecott. Instead of a committee meeting, it would be an open house--folks would be invited to drop by, read a handful of books, and cast their ballots (to be tabulated later). Also there would be cookies. Here are some of the books I'm considering:

• Ask Me by Bernard Waber, illustrated by Suzy Lee
• Drowned City by Don Brown
• Drum Dream Girl by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Rafael López
• Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick, illustrated by Sophie Blackall
• Float by Daniel Miyares
• Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson, illustrated by David Shannon
• Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Peña , illustrated by Christian Robinson
• Two Mice by Sergio Ruzzier
• Wait by Antoinette Portis
• Waiting by Kevin Henkes
• Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Zachariah OHora
• Yard Sale by Lauren Castillo

The final list would depend in part on what I already have and what's available at the library--with any luck, there will be at least some overlap with the real committee's choices. It makes Monday morning much more fun! Any interest?

Eleanor's Magic Doorway

I spent most of New Year's Day ensconced on the couch, reading The Lake House by Kate Morton (Atria, 2015). Sometimes a member of the family joined me, most often the dog. It was a lovely way to start my reading year.

Now for the book: The Lake House is internationally-bestselling Australian author Kate Morton's most recent novel (it was published in the US in October; there was a long hold list). If you've read any of Morton's other books, The Lake House might feel familiar to you (in a good way): there are missing children, abandoned houses with lush, overgrown gardens; family secrets. The story is usually told in chapters that alternate past and present, gradually intertwining them. Children's books (invented ones) are often connected in some way to the events of the narrative. In The Lake House, the children's book is Eleanor's Magic Doorway.

Sadie Sparrow, the Detective Constable investigating the 70-year-old cold case of the real Eleanor's missing child, is not impressed--"From what she could gather, these kids' books were all alike" (113). Probably because she didn't read Eleanor's Magic Doorway as a child, although it had been a gift from her grandparents (a cautionary tale for those of us who like to give today's children fondly remembered books from our own childhoods). The book does merit a chapter in someone's doctoral dissertation, titled "Fictional Escap(e)ades: Mothers, Monsters and Metaphysics in Children's Fictions," which makes me wonder what the dissertation on Children's Books in the Novels of Kate Morton is going to be called.

If The Lake House sounds appealing, do seek out Morton's other books as well! The Forgotten Garden is my favorite.

Drawing with Charcoal and P.J. Lynch

Once of my goals for this year (not reading or blogging-related) is to draw more, maybe even every day. I thought the Guardian's brilliant How to draw... series might be a good source of assignments, for days when the vague "draw more" isn't enough. Today's entry in the series is How to draw...with charcoal from Irish illustrator P.J. Lynch, who walks us through the steps of making this evocative drawing of a lighthouse using vine and compressed charcoal, white chalk, and a plastic eraser. I'm familiar with charcoal--it's one of the materials we use when drawing in the galleries--and Lynch has some useful tips, but drawing with charcoal is not my favorite. I think a B pencil is too smudgy! So I'm giving this week's assignment a pass, although I'd love to read Once Upon a Place, an anthology of stories and poems by Irish childrens' writers, edited by Eoin Colfer and illustrated, in charcoal, by P.J. Lynch. Each story or poem is set in or inspired by a particular place in Ireland: I wonder if any of our favorite places (we visited Ireland last summer) are there?

[The cover art for Once Upon a Place, also by P.J. Lynch, seems to have been done in watercolor. It's beautiful, and a very  different effect from charcoal, don't you think?]