A JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

2017, v o l . 55, n o .3 The Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People Copyright © 2017 by Bookbird, Inc. Reproduction of articles in Bookbird requires permission in writing from the editor.

Editor: Björn Sundmark, Malmö University, Sweden. Address for submissions and other editorial correspondence: [email protected]. Bookbird’s editorial office is supported by the Faculty of Education, Malmö University, Sweden

Editorial Review Board: Peter E. Cumming, York University (Canada); Debra Dudek, University of Wollongong (Australia); Helene Høyrup, Royal School of Library & Information Science (Denmark); Judith Inggs, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa); Ingrid Johnston, University of Alberta (Canada); Michelle Martin, University of South Carolina (USA); Beatriz Alcubierre Moya, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (Mexico); Lissa Paul, Brock University (Canada); Margaret Zeegers, University of Ballarat (Australia); Lydia Kokkola, Luleå University (Sweden); Roxanne Harde, University of Alberta (Canada), Gargi Gangophadhyay, Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Vivekananda Vidyabhavan (India); Tami al-Hazza, Old Dominion University (USA); Farideh Pourgiv, Shiraz University Center for Children’s Literature Studies (Iran); Anna Kérchy, University of Szeged (Hungary); Andrea Mei Ying Wu, National Cheng kung University (Taiwan); Junko Sakoi, Tucson, AZ, (USA).

Board of Bookbird, Inc. (an Indiana not-for-profit corporation): Valerie Coghlan, President; Ellis Vance, Treasurer; Junko Yokota, Secretary; Evelyn B. Freeman; Hasmig Chahinian.

Advertising Manager: Ellis Vance ([email protected]) Production: Design and layout by Mats Hedman. Printed by The Sheridan Press, Hanover, Pennsylvania, USA

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature (ISSN 0006-7377) is a refereed journal published quarterly in Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall by IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, and distributed by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Baltimore, Maryland, and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Bookbird, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Journals Division, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363 USA. Canada postmaster: Bookbird, Publications Mail Registration Number 40600510. Send address corrections to The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363 USA. Subscriptions to Bookbird: See last page

IBBY Executive Committee 2016-2018: Wally de Doncker (Belgium) President; Mingzhou Zhang (China), Vice President; Evelyn B. Freeman (USA), Vice President; Anastasia Arkhipova (Russia); Carole Bloch (South Africa); Hasmig Chahinian (France); Zohreh Ghaeni (Iran); Ferelith Hordon (UK); Sunjidmaa Jamba (Mongolia), Serpil Ural (Turkey), Maria Cristina Vargas (Mexico). Non-voting Members: Patricia Aldana (Canada), Hans Christian Andersen Jury President; Elizabeth Page (Switzerland), Executive Director; Ellis Vance (USA), Treasurer; Björn Sundmark (Sweden), Bookbird Editor.

IBBY may be contacted at Nonnenweg 12 Postfach, CH-4009 Basel, Switzerland, tel: +4161 272 29 17 fax: +4161 272 27 57 email: [email protected]

Bookbird is indexed in Library Literature, Library and Information Abstracts (LISA), Children’s Book Review Index, Web of Science, and the MLA International Bibliography.

The front and back cover illustrations is from Djur som ingen sett (“Animals Never Seen”) by Ulf Stark (text) and Linda Bondestam (illustrator). The illustration is reproduced by permission of the illustrator, Linda Bondestam. Contents

Editorial by Björn Sundmark 2

Articles Critical Fictions of Transnationalism in Latinx Children’s Literature by Carol Brochin and Carmen L. Medina 4 Patronizing the Reader in Picturebook Translation: Peter Rabbit in the Garden of Terror by Anne Ketola 12 Female Empowerment and Undocumented Border Crossing in Bettina Restrepo’s Illegal by Cristina Rhodes 20

Authors & Their Books “I Am a Writer on the Nomadic Journey”: An interview with Dashondog Jamba by Sunjidmaa Jamba 28 “I’ve Got a Story You Haven’t Heard”: A Conversation about the Art and Craft of Nonfiction with Candace Fleming by Teri Suico 31

Children & Their Books The Nordic House in Reykjavík, Iceland: A House with a Big Heart for Children and Literature by Marloes Robijn 37

Review essay Three Times in Wonderland by Anna Kerchy 42

Letters Perception and Reception of Nonfiction for Children and Youth in Slovenia by Tina Bilban 46 Interview with Nizar Ali Badr by Margriet Ruurs 49

Books on Books Reviews collected and edited by Christiane Raabe and Jutta Reusch, IYL 54

Focus IBBY by Liz Page 62

Postcards edited by Barbara Lehman 27, 52-53, 69

IBBY.ORG 1 55.3–2017 Editorial

MAYBE I AM JUST AN ODD EDITOR, but I art by Elizabeth Marshall and Theresa Rogers, and Cristina Rhodes’ analysis of Bettina Restrepo’s has the subheading: “A House with a Big Heart for like to read errata lists. I take innocent pleasure I inadvertently changed “culture jamming” to Illegal, which focuses on female empowerment Children and Literature.” Finally, Sunjidmaa Jamba in perusing lists of corrections and emendations. “cultural jamming” and also used too low resolution and “undocumented border crossing.” These two has contributed an interview with Mongolian writer Some publications, like The New York Review of Books, in one or two of the images. I also claimed that the texts are indicative of the rise of critical articles in Dashondog Jamba, under the title “I am a Writer can turn the errata list into a genre in itself—and cover images (front and back) by Lisbeth Zwerger English on Latin American children’s literature. on the Nomadic Journey.” Sadly, Dashondog Jamba make it a learning experience. I also find that the had never been published before; well, they Among the feature articles, we also find a passed away while this issue was in preparation, corrections found in local newspapers often provide had, exactly forty years ago in the book that was study of the Finnish translation of Peter Rabbit. which increases the poignancy and relevance of the quaint and interesting details of relevance to the Zwerger’s debut as an illustrator. The illustrations Furthermore, Anna Kerchy has contributed a review interview. An obituary, penned by Liz Page, of this local community. Moreover, in my experience, a published on the inside back cover, however, had essay on several recent studies of Lewis Carroll and extraordinary writer, can moreover be found in the forbidding academic tome can suddenly appear not previously been published; they can be seen his Alice books. And Marloes Robijn provides a Focus IBBY-section. friendly and inviting as soon as it (or rather its in color in the electronic version of the journal. description of The Nordic House in Reykjavik in author) admits that a mistake has been made, Finally, I wrote that the cover illustrations showed the section “Children & Their Books”; her article Björn Sundmark say, on page 432, second line. Note that it is not a fairy tale by Heinrich Hoffman—wrong again!—it the fault in itself that is commendable in any of should of course be E. T. A. Hoffman! these cases but rather the willingness to admit the In the present issue of Bookbird, we try again. error, coupled with the readiness to always wish There are two texts on the topic of nonfiction to improve the text and, ultimately, increase our for children: a Letter from Tina Bilban about shared knowledge. Errata and truth are the opposite Slovenian nonfiction and an interview with of alternative facts and Newspeak. For truth, Candace Fleming by Teri Suico about the art and trustworthiness, and admitting error are not central craft of nonfiction. When we advertised a call for a BJÖRN SUNDMARK is Professor concerns for politicized, ideology-talk. The errata special nonfiction issue of Bookbird, I imagined that of English Literature in the Faculty list, on the other hand, acknowledges imperfection we would get a huge response from writers since it of Education, Malmö University, while striving for improvement. I think that is a very is a major publishing genre for children and youth. Sweden. He has published numerous articles on children’s human and humane approach. It is interesting, too, But it was not to be. However, these two articles literature, and is the author of the that the root meaning of “err” is to wander or to eloquently show the relevance of the topic and study Alice in the Oral-Literary stray. When we say that to err is human, we admit the centrality of nonfiction as a form of writing for Continuum (1999) and co-editor that we make mistakes but also that we wander and children and youth. of The Nation in Children’s Literature (Routledge 2013). He is explore, and try our best Two of the feature articles in this issue deal editor of Bookbird–Journal of Having said that, I am now ready to admit with Latin American themes. We have Carol International Children’s Literature. that there were some mistakes in the last issue Brochin and Carmen Medina’s discussion of of Bookbird (55.2). In the fine article on street transnationalism in “Latinx” children’s literature

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pend time talking to any Latinx child to- Theories of Transnationalism day from the United States, Puerto Rico, In her essay on children’s literature in a global age, Mexico, or any other Latin American Clare Bradford writes, “transnational identities Critical Fictions of country and they can talk about family are formed when individuals and groups negotiate members or friends who live in another between and across cultures and languages” (23). Scountry, who have lived in another country and re- These identities are often shaped by geography and Transnationalism in Latinx turned, or who have considered the possibility of spatial locations. Our own experiences as members leaving. Their complex social networks transcend of transnational communities are grounded in nego- national borders, cultures, and languages. Sadly, tiations that cross multiple borders. Carol Brochin Children’s Literature however, the children’s books used in schools rarely (first author of this article) grew up in the border reflect the complex transnational identities of chil- towns of Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamau- dren and their families. In this essay, therefore, we lipas, Mexico; crossing the international bridge was Carol Brochin and Carmen L. Medina provide an overview of theories of critical transna- part of her daily childhood experiences. As a child, tional perspectives in literacy and literature as they she read children’s books and magazines in both relate to children and children’s literature, and we English and Spanish and watched popular Mexican ask how we can reframe our teaching pedagogies to television shows alongside Sesame Street. Her ability engage transnational literature in our classrooms and to cross the international border was made possible what insights an analysis of Latinx children’s litera- by US citizenship and a US-born father. She grew up ture can offer theories of transnationalism. We then learning about the politics of crossing and the priv- apply key theoretical perspectives to the analysis of ilege afforded to her. Many of her Mexican family transnational literacies and literature to discuss the members could not cross the border as easily. book A Cafecito Story (2001) by Latina feminist author Carmen L. Medina (the second author), was Julia Alvarez, who depicts the lives of children and born in Puerto Rico and has lived in the United families impacted by global markets and internation- States for twenty years. Puerto Rico, a colonial ter- al borders. ritory of the United States for over a hundred years, has a complicated migration history that has conse- quences in both the United States and Puerto Rico. ”Transnational literature transformed the Given the current economic and social conditions in Puerto Rico, migration to the United States is high. nature of the locations we study, and focused our attention Furthermore, transnationalism is also evident not on forms of cultural production that take place in the just in people’s migration patterns but in the ways US goods are imported and have come to dominate liminal spaces between real and imagined borders.” the island economy. Throughout her life as a grand- (Paul Jay) daughter of a local farmer, Medina has witnessed the shift from sustainable local economy to an economy largely dependent on imported goods. In this essay, we provide an overview of the theories of transnationalism and We come together to reflect on Julia Alvarez’ work for young audiences. Her books make visible critical fctions as they relate to children and children’s literature. We defne the complex dynamics and consequences of transna- “critical fctions of transnationalism” as texts that position readers across tionalism in diverse Latinx communities in the US locations and times, making visible contemporary overlapping politics of and across the US borders. This is in line with our border crossing, global markets, and cultural production across spaces and belief that children’s books about the Latinx trans- national experiences must reflect this reality, and if its implications for transmigrant communities. We then apply key theoretical understood as critical fictions, they can be identified elements of transnational literacies in literature to discuss the book Cafecito as powerful literary texts enabling us to make sense Story (2001) by Latina feminist author Julia Alvarez. Her books depict of and critically reflect upon important social issues in contemporary society. children and families whose lives are impacted by transnational markets Sociolinguist Jan Blommaert has made a signif- and international borders. icant contribution to our understanding of literacy,

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texts, and research in contemporary times. His no- Transnational Perspectives in the Study of Transnational Critical Praxis social conditions of migrant farmworkers in the Unit- tions about diversity, mobility, and transnationalism Young Adult and Children’s Literature: In the following, we focus on writings by Latina ed States in books like Return to Sender (2009). help us understand the complex dynamics of how Identifying Key Elements feminist author Julia Alvarez. In her books for chil- Moving across nations in Before We Were Free people, texts, and power travel across spaces. Ac- The study of transnational literature is an emerging dren and young adults, the politics of gender and (2002), Alvarez presents the reader with the story cording to him, we need “a new grid on our analysis: field in literary studies (see, for example, the Trans- globalization are central. In our reading, we apply of a family living in the Dominican Republic during we are now facing the task of designing an ethnog- national Literature eJournal). This body of work focuses the following critical concepts: transnational critical Trujillo’s dictatorship. The story is told from a young raphy, not locally but of transfer, of mobility, not of on the study of “the historical, social, and political praxis, critical fiction, and transnational networks. girl’s perspective, and within the portrayal of a coun- product but of process, and not in one ‘ecologically’ forces at work shaping personal and cultural identi- This enables us to articulate the implications and try’s battle to survive an oppressive regime, there are described community but across communities” (6). ty in transnationalized spaces” (Jay 8-9). One of the possibilities of these texts for contemporary multi- significant aspects explored about growing up as a Thus, this lens when applied to looking at texts for important contributions from studies of transnational cultural and multilingual literacy research and teach- woman in the Dominican society (See Brochin and children can help inform how teachers and teacher literature is a new understanding and reframing of ing. Julia Alvarez’ work as a Latina feminist writer Medina, 2016). Across Alvarez’ trajectory of work educators select texts that represent multiple per- literature beyond national borders. Transnational foregrounds the complex social conditions of differ- both for adults and young audiences, there is a rich spectives across communities. The key is not simply writers construct narratives across spaces that repre- ent Latinx transmigrant communities with a special sense of interconnectedness that denotes her work to map how people and texts move but to under- sent complex intercultural relations outside of one emphasis in Dominican communities, among other as a transnational writer. A Cafecito Story/El Cuento del stand the new forms of marginalization, unfair redis- native homeland or community (Dagnino). From a Latinx communities. As a contemporary Caribbean/ Cafecito (2001) is one of those texts that once again tribution of wealth, and re-segregation that emerge social justice perspective, commitment towards eq- Latina feminist writer, Alvarez embodies a cosmo- resituates Alvarez as a transnational Caribbean au- specifically for transmigrant communities (Anzaldúa, uity and justice is perceived as efforts across nations politan and decolonialist view in her writing. Inter- thor and will be further analyzed in the next sec- 1987). and places “living inside outside all existing cultures” connectedness is foregrounded in her textual moves tions. Theories of transnational literacies inform the (Epstein 333). In our interpretation of transnational across communities and countries, and she empha- ways in which we understand the practices of chil- literature studies, we have identified some key ele- sizes issues of equity and justice. Some of her highly A Cafecito Story: Situating the Text as a dren and their families (Brochin; de la Piedra and ments that help us better understand important his- regarded work for adults maps complex identity and Critical Fiction Guerra; Medina). We build on the work of Robert torical and literary aspects of this literature. Across social politics across Dominican immigrant experi- In A Cafecito Story, Alvarez takes a more contem- Jimenez and his colleagues who define transnation- our analysis of Julia Alvarez’ work, we find the fol- ences of oppression, marginalization, and liberation. porary perspective on the politics of sustainability al literacies as “written language practices of people lowing aspects from her writing relevant to the theo- In texts like her autobiographically based novel How and transnational relations. This autobiographically who are involved in activities that span national ries of transnationalism: the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), Alvarez ex- based story is inspired by her and her husband’s ex- boundaries” including both the production and in- plores the sense-making process of a Dominican periences organizing an organic coffee farm that also terpretation of written texts (17). Over the past de- • She foregrounds mobility and displace- family whose history is marked by the horrors and integrates a literacy school project in the Dominican cade, we have seen an emergence of transnational ment and its consequences. Mobility consequences of living under a dictatorial regime Republic. texts in contemporary Latinx children’s literature and displacement are not limited to just and the redefinition of a new life and identity as an that depict the complex social networks and lived people but also to local goods, languages, immigrant family in the United States. In addition, realities of communities who live in-between and and social capital. she constructs political narratives that make visible We now live together on this mountain farm, across nations, states, and borders—including phys- • She represents histories and trajectories historical accounts of oppression in the Dominican surrounded by the trees Jow planted and by ical, cultural, linguistic, and gendered spaces (Sem- of colonization and decolonization. From Republic in books such as In the Time of the Butterflies our campesino family. The coffee is thriving. ingson). We argue that this transnational literature a critical perspective, transnational litera- (1994)—which presents the story of the Mirabal sis- The farmers are thriving. Everyone is reading. depicts counter-stories to the metanarratives about ture makes visible the complex relation- ters, who were political activists during Trujillo’s bru- And I am writing! immigrant children and disrupt notions of a linear ship that exists between the cultural and tal dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and who (37) path of migration while centering global politics of political forms of colonization (past and were murdered by Trujillo’s military government. power. present) to the circumstances that push The political themes explored in Alvarez’ nov- When reading this text as a critical fiction—where Theories of transnationalism of childhood pro- away or that have as consequences the els for adults also permeate her writing for younger the authors’ politics are embedded in their imag- vide insights into the ways in which children main- deterritorialization of people and social audiences. The Tía Lola series—Tía Lola came to Vis- inative writing—the space between what is written tain communication across nations, languages, and goods. it (Stay) (2001), How Tía Lola Learned to Teach (2010), in the main fictional text and what the author in- currencies; they also include cultural practices in- • She makes visible the forces of globaliza- How Tía Lola Saved the Summer (2011)—narrates the cludes in the afterword is blurred but also intentional volving people, labor, goods, information, languages, tion (both cultural and economic), which experiences of Tía Lola, an older woman with some (hooks). stories, religion, traditions, and advice. These com- provide opportunities for some and special magic, who moves from the Dominican Re- The protagonist, Joe, similar to Alvarez’ hus- municative cultural practices flow in various, non-lin- marginalization for many others. public to live with her family in the United States. band, is a white American male farmer. Joe comes ear directions across households (Sanchez). Central • She shows that agency is perceived as Woven into the magic of this character are themes from a family of farmers in the United States, but to these theories is the premise that “children are ac- happening in nepantla, the liminal space about the meanings of being a Latinx immigrant his family had to let go of the farm as a result of the tive cultural agents” (Gardner 894); thus, we feature in-between and across borders (Anzaldua). child in the United States. Furthermore, in her work establishment of multinational farming businesses in texts that represent them in these ways. for young audiences, Alvarez has also explored the the local community that made it financially too dif-

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ficult for local farmers to survive. In Alvarez’ depic- to a company who has the newest technology: ship the cooperativo coffee to the United America and the Caribbean. tion of global markets, she resituates the struggle on States. (25) Through her books, Alvarez complicates the local sustainability as an issue impacting more than La compañía has the mercado, Miguel immigrant narrative. She shows how immigrants are one country or community. Very much a reflection explains. If we work for them we will get Miguel and Joe join forces to save the farm; Miguel not just people who arrive in a place without a his- of her transnational identity navigating realities and 80 pesos a day, 150 if we are willing to teaches Joe about coffee harvesting, and Joe offers to tory. She takes us back and forth to connect stories politics as a Dominican immigrant, Alvarez explores spray the poison. I get 35 pesos for a caja begin a local literacy project to help families learn of marginalization across places. Understanding the sociopolitical and socioeconomic issues across loca- of beans, Carmen can pick two cajas a to read and write. In this example, you also get in- social conditions of the Dominican Republic pro- tions in the USA and Dominican Republic. Speaking day. It takes three years for me to get a sight into the voice of Julia Alvarez and her husband vides us with a bridge into understanding politics of from this multiplicity of locations, as it relates to her coffee harvest. On the plantation, with talking about the work they are doing in a local farm globalization and immigration in the United States. border crossing identity positions, she is a cosmopol- their sprays, they have coffee in a year. (17) in the Dominican Republic. Specifically, we see incredible value in works such as itan author who engages in seeing her experiences as The following example is from a note that Al- A Cafecito Story in social studies classrooms. For im- a “world” citizen. Border crossing is then a productive At the core of the story, the reader can hear the cry varez’ husband wrote in the book’s afterword about migrant children engaging with transnational texts way to depict a broader sense of the world versus the of the farmers and their struggle for survival. The their farming experiences. He wrote, in classrooms, teachers can make explicit the ways conservative deficient views of immigrants as lacking corporate global markets and their non-sustainable, in which students can draw from their own reper- intellectual, historical and cultural knowledge in one non-ecological practices ground on quick mass pro- I had not realized that the same kind of toires of transnational literacy practices. Students particular place. duction make it more beneficial for the farmers to technification that had eliminated sea gulls can understand more deeply places that immigrants As a result of his family farm loss, Joe decides produce coffee faster. Furthermore, as the corpora- and family farms in Nebraska was now call home outside of the United States. They can to take a trip to the Dominican Republic, where he tions provide more products faster, the possibilities doing a job on traditional shade-coffee build critical understanding of transnational funds of initially goes to stay at an exclusive resort: of alternative ecological and economically sustain- farms in the tropics. Julia and I saw first- knowledge and foster cultural flexibility across bor- able farms are represented as becoming a challenge. hand how globalization was changing the ders (Sanchez and Landa). At a time when more and The beach resort is surrounded by a high Local farmers, due to their need for survival, are put campo, or countryside, that we had both more people become less mobile between the Unit- wall, guards at the entrances, checking in a position to either join corporations or disappear. known as youngsters. (40) ed States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and other Central ID cards. No natives are allowed on the and Latin American countries, it is critical to discuss grounds except the service people who Transnational Networks of Praxis Julia Alvarez has been working with coffee farmers these pressing issues with children. wear Aunt Jemima kerchiefs and faux- An interesting perspective in A Cafecito Story is the in the Dominican Republic, and they started a large We suggest that explorations into the complexi- Caribbean costumes and perpetual, way the author—both in the fictional work and in her literacy project there. Through this analysis, we be- ties of transnationalism can be examined as an exist- desperate smiles of welcome. real work—sees the role of literacy education in rela- gin to see that in writing A Cafecito Story, she is creat- ing set of texts that represent a variety of experiences (Alvarez, A Cafecito Story 9) tion to the local support for farmers and their fami- ing a critical fiction of the work she has already done. and a multiplicity of voices, not as a single, linear lies. From a social consciousness perspective, such as What becomes important for us is how the work narrative. By looking at these issues from broad and No “natives” are allowed on the grounds except the the ones explored by Paulo Freire, empowerment is of Julia Alvarez as a transnational writer is situated multiple perspectives, we can expand curricular un- service people, who wear Aunt Jemima kerchiefs and not acquired just by having someone advocate for the at the intersection of political realities and fictional derstandings of migration and immigration to reflect faux-Caribbean costumes and perpetual desperate rights of marginalized communities, but it is achieved narratives. Her critical fictions provide spaces for al- the complex, dynamic lived realities of children and smiles of welcome. Here Alvarez exposes the politics by foregrounding sustainability and agency within the ternative transnational feminist narratives to emerge their families. of the emerging approach to local tourism that per- community. Literacy in this sense plays a key role. In in ways that could serve in classrooms. petuates the clear divide between native and tourist. the story, while simultaneously creating new social Julia Alvarez’s Transnational Texts focusing This divide is constructed to support contemporary conditions for the local farms to survive, such as a co- Refecting on the Value of Transnational on Social Justice servant/master relationships that are also related to op, a literacy project is established to teach people in Author Studies PICTUREBOOKS the complex racial divide that exists in society, not the community to read and write. The following sec- By opening up the conversation about transnational- The Secret Footprints (2000) just in the United States, but in other places as well. tion from the novel is an example of praxis: ism in the work of particular Latinx authors for chil- The Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia (2005) The emergence of this kind of resort and this kind of dren and young adult literature, we looked within The Best Gift of All: The Legend of La Vieja Belen (2008) work in the Dominican Republic is presented in the Miguel and Joe’s idea spreads. Many of the borders and across borders to find texts that support CHAPTER BOOKS How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay (2001) book as a major economic force for the local econo- small farmers join them, banding transnational identities of children who often speak Before We Were Free (2002) my—but a force that does not eradicate the divide be- together into a cooperativo and building both English and Spanish as well other languages in Finding Miracles (2004) tween the rich and poor and that has multiple conse- their own beneficio for processing the their homes. It is our hope that teachers and teacher Return to Sender (2009) quences on immigration and transnationalism where beans rather than having to pay high fees educators will engage in deep conversations about How Tia Lola Learned to Teach (2010) the ultimate benefit here is only for the corporate. to use the compañía facilities. They can Latinx authors work. When we had an opportunity How Tia Lola Ended Up Starting Over (2011) How Tia Lola Saved the Summer (2011) Joe decides then to visit a local coffee parlor, where now read the contracts the buyers bring to look across Alvarez’s work, we found it to be an NON-FICTION he meets the owner of the parlor, Miguel. On his visit, and argue for better terms. Joe buys books incredible insight into the past and present, especial- A Cafecito Story, (2001) he finds out that they are about to sell their coffee parlor in the ciudad where he goes periodically to ly in the context of current immigration across Latin Once Upon a Quinceañera, (2007)

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WORKS CITED SECONDARY SOURCES CHILDREN’S BOOKS Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Alvarez, Julia How the García Girls Lost Their Accents Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987. Print. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 1991. Print. Barnard, Rita. “Fictions of the Global.” Novel 42.2 —. In the Time of the Butterfies. Chapel Hill, N.C.: (Summer 2009): 207-215. Web 26 June 2015. Algonquin Books, 1994. Print. Blommaert, Jan. Grassroots Literacy: Writing, Identity —. The Secret Footprints. New York: Knopf Book for and Voice in Central Africa. New York, NY: Routledge, Young Readers, 2000. Print. 2008. Print. —. How Tía Lola Came to (Visit) Stay. New York: Knopf Bradford, Clare. “Children’s Literature in a Global Age: Book for Young Readers, 2001. Print. Transnational and Local Identities.” Nordic Journal of Child —. A Cafecito Story. White River Junction: Chelsea Green Lit Aesthetics 2 (2011): DOI: 10.3402/blft.v2i0.5828 Publishers, 2001. Print. Brochin, Carol and Carmen Medina. “Chicana/Latina —. Before We Were Free. New York: Knopf, 2002. Print. Feminist Methodologies of Embodiment: Testimonies —. Finding Miracles. New York: Knopf Book for Young in the Young Adult Novel, Before We Were Free.” Readers, 2004. Print. Methodologies of Embodiment. Eds. Mia Perry and —. The Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia. New Carmen Medina. New York: Routledge Research York: Knopf Book for Young Readers, 2005. Print. Series, 2015. —. Once Upon a Quinceañera. New York: Viking, 2007. Dagnino, Arianna. “Global Mobility, Transcultural Print. Literature, and Multiple Modes of Modernity.” Trans- —. The Best Gift of All: The Legend of La Vieja Belen. cultural Studies 2 (2013): 130–160. Santillana/Alfaguara Infantil, Bilingual edition, 2008. Davila, Denise. “Pat Mora: Transcending the Continental Print. Divide One Book at a Time.” Bookbird: A Journal of —. Return to Sender. New York: Knopf Book for Young International Children’s Literature 52.3 (2014): 1–12. Readers, 2009. Print. De La Piedra, María Teresa and Juan Guerra. “The Literacy —. How Tía Lola Learned to Teach. New York: Knopf Practices of Transfronterizos in a Multilingual World.” Book for Young Readers, 2010. Print International Journal of Bilingual Education and CAROL BROCHIN is an Assistant Professor of Bilingual/ CARMEN MEDINA is an Associate Professor of Literacy, —. How Tía Lola Saved the Summer. New York: Knopf Bilingualism. 15.6 (2012): 627–634. Multicultural Education in the Department of Teaching, Culture, and Language Education at Indiana University. Book for Young Readers, 2011. Print. Epstein, Mikhail N. “Transculture: A Broad Way between Learning, and Sociocultural Studies at the University of Her research interests are literacy/biliteracy as social and —. How Tia Lola Ended Up Starting Over. New York: Globalism and Multiculturalism.” American Journal of Arizona. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as critical practices, critical performance/drama pedagogies, Knopf Book for Young Readers, 2011. Print. Economics and Sociology 68.1 (2009): 327-351. a language arts and literacy teacher in her hometown and Latino/a (bilingual) children’s literature. Recently Gardner, Katy. “Transnational Migration and the Study of Laredo, Texas, located on the US/Mexico border. It was in she has been working on a research project examining Children: An Introduction.” Journal of Ethnic and this transnational, multilingual context that she cultivated Latino/a children engagement and interpretive literacy Migration Studies, 38.6 (2012): 889-912. her research and teaching interests in preparing teachers practices at the intersection of global/local landscapes Hooks, Bell. “Narratives of Struggle.” Critical Fictions: The to develop pedagogical practices that affrm the literacy and networks. She is a co-author with Dr. Karen Politics of Imaginative Writing. Edited by Philomena practices of diverse students across educational settings. Wohlwend of the book Literacy, Play and Globalization: Mariani, Washington: Bay Press, 1991: 53-61. Her research interests include teacher education and Converging Imaginaries in Children’s Critical and Cultural Jay, Paul. Global Matters: The Transnational Turn in preparation, LGBTQ and bilingual literature for youth, and Performances (Routledge Research Series). A co-edited Literary Studies. Ithaca, NY, USA: Cornell University multimodal literacies. She has published research articles volume with Dr. Mia Perry entitled Methodologies of Press, 2010. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 13 January 2016. and book chapters on young adult literature, bilingual Embodiment is currently in press (Routledge Research Jimenez, Robert T., Smith, Patrick H., and Brad L. Teague. teacher preparation, and transnational literacies. Series) and a book in the making on Puerto Rican children “Transnational and Community Literacies for Teachers.” literacy practices. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 53.1 (2009): 16-28. Print. Mariani, Philomena, (Ed.). Critical Fictions: The Politics of Imaginative Writing. Washington: Bay Press, 1991. Print. Sanchez, Patricia. “Urban immigrant students: How transnationalism shapes their work learning.” The Urban Review 39.5 (2007): 489-517. Print. Sanchez, Patricia and Maite Landa. “Cruzando Fronteras: Negotiating the Stories of Latino Immigrant and Trans- national Children.” Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds. Ed. Ellen Riojas Clark, Belinda Bustos Flores, Howard Smith, and Daniel Alejandro Gonzalez. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefeld, 2016. 69–82. Semingson, Peggy. “Poets, Artists, and Storytellers: Bilingual, Bicultural, and Transnational Narratives.” Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature 51.3 (2013): 88–90.

BOOKBIRD 10 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 11 55.3–2017 PETER RABBIT IN THE GARDEN OF TERROR: PATRONIZING THE READER IN Articles PICTUREBOOK TRANSLATION Peter Rabbit in the Garden of Terror: Patronizing the Reader in Picturebook Translation

Anne Ketola

eatrix Potter originally wrote The Tale penter concludes that the journal revealed an image This study set out to compare Beatrix Potter’s classic picturebook The of Peter Rabbit in 1893 for Noel, the son of the author as a covert rebel, displaying a vigorous Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) and its Finnish translation from 1967. The of her former governess. The story was contempt for the accepted values of her time (“Ex- analysis showed that the Finnish translator has added various elements published as a private edition in 1901 cessively Impertinent Bunnies” 279). This, inevita- which make the story considerably more frightening for child readers; the and by Frederick Warne the following bly, also changed the (grown-up) interpretation of Byear (Whalley and Chester 164). The book tells the The Tale of Peter Rabbit. As discussed below, the story translator has, for instance, described Peter’s adversary, Mr. McGregor, as tale of a young rabbit who ventures into a farmer’s has since been interpreted as actually encouraging a bogeyman and added descriptions of how afraid Peter supposedly was garden against his mother’s orders. He helps himself the child reader to question the rules of the soci- at different stages of the story. The reason behind these modifcations to the delights of the garden, almost gets caught, but ety and demonstrating the rewards of disobedience. then manages to return home unharmed. For de- As early as 1907, Potter’s publisher considered could well be that the translator interpreted the tale as a moral lesson cades, the story was interpreted as a cautionary tale, the possibility of translating the story into French aimed to frighten children. This, indeed, was a common interpretation of urging its child readers to behave well. While the in- and German. Potter herself supervised the first trans- the story even among children’s literature scholars before the discovery terpretation might seem plausible from the point of lations, which—as the author was not convinced of view of adults reading the story, it is considerably less their quality—were never published. The first pub- of Potter’s personal journal, which brought about a new interpretation of convincing when considered from the perspective of lished translation was written in Dutch in 1912, and the author as a covert rebel who encouraged her young readers to socially the child audience. As Elizabeth Nesbitt remarks, French translations soon followed (Linder 264). The nonconformist behavior. However, the Finnish translation does not offer children, as a literary audience, are intolerant of con- Tale of Peter Rabbit was Potter’s first story to be trans- descension (318). Why would children, generation lated into Finnish. The translation, made by Riitta its readers the possibility to interpret Potter’s message in this fashion. The after generation, adore a story that talks down to the Björklund, was published in an anthology of stories study concludes that the process of translating for children can, at its worst, reader? Yet, the discovery of Potter’s journal changed for children in 1967 and as a picturebook in 1979. add an air of patronage to the story. the way Potter’s work is perceived. Humphrey Car- While the original book and its translations to oth-

BOOKBIRD 12 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 13 55.3–2017 PETER RABBIT IN THE GARDEN OF TERROR: PATRONIZING THE READER IN PETER RABBIT IN THE GARDEN OF TERROR: PATRONIZING THE READER IN PICTUREBOOK TRANSLATION PICTUREBOOK TRANSLATION er languages continue to enjoy a phenomenal suc- interpretation of Potter’s character also inevitably interpretation, Peter Rabbit—even after facing the As children’s literature is written by adults, it cess, with over two million Beatrix Potter books sold changes the interpretation of her literary work. As giant and nearly losing his life—is not afraid of his ad- always contains some proportion of adult comment. across the world every year (Frederick Warne & Co), Carpenter asserts, there is nothing in Potter’s work versary. Instead, he is impertinent and intrusive. As Yet, as Fisher remarks, this must be “delivered as from the Finnish picturebook was never reprinted. In the that illustrates a moral attitude: Nesbitt describes, much like many others of Potter’s one intelligent individual to another” (18). Nesbitt, present article, I set out to offer an explanation for characters, Peter Rabbit is a small rebel (325). The too, affirms that the child audience is intolerant of the poor reception of the Finnish translation. The In fact it might be argued that she is rabbit is, after all, a burglar. Instead of encouraging condescension (318). As the present article aims to Finnish publisher does not have a record of the trans- writing something pretty close to a series the child readers to good behavior, Carpenter con- show, the process of translating for children can add lation commission—explaining, for instance, why of immoral tales; that voice we hear again cludes, the narrator of the tale is definitely on the a layer of adult comment to the story. Translators are they chose this particular translator, how the transla- and again in her stories is not that of the side of the transgressors (“Excessively Impertinent always affected by how they understand the needs tor was instructed to carry out the commission, and late Victorian spinster decorously instruct- Bunnies” 287). Peter Rabbit is a disobedient child of the receiver of the translation (see, for example, how the translation was marketed—so these consid- ing her nieces and child-friends in accept- who does the very thing his mother has forbidden Suojanen, Koskinen, and Tuominen). When erations are left outside the analysis. able social behavior, but of a rebel, albeit a him from doing—empathizing with him gives the translating for children, the question of the receivers’ I will start the discussion by introducing how covert one, demonstrating the rewards of child reader a chance to be naughty by proxy. supposed needs gains an even greater significance. Potter’s books have been interpreted in different de- nonconformity. As Riitta Oittinen describes, the translators of cades. In particular, I will emphasize how the chang- (“Excessively Impertinent Bunnies” 279) Writing—and Translating—for Children children’s literature are guided by what they believe ing image of Beatrix Potter as an author also changed While a children’s story must be written in a is best for the child (41–60). the interpretation of her work. I will then discuss Beatrix Potter’s whole life was dedicated to rebel- language that is intelligible for young readers, it must When evaluating translations, one should what writing for a child audience entails—what ap- lion. As Carpenter affirms, Potter’s books reflect simultaneously be written with high literary quality always bear in mind what translation truly is—and plies to writing for children should also apply to trans- the same unconventionality that is recorded in her (Nesbitt 318). As Margery Fisher writes in her what it is not. Translation does not entail producing lating for children. After all, translation is re-writing. journal (280). While Potter’s books seemingly warn classic Intent upon Reading, intelligible language, from sameness or rendering the exact same story in I will then move on to introduce my analysis of the against disobedience, Julia Briggs suggests that the the perspective of a child audience, “does not mean a different language. In his classic essay, André Finnish translation of the book. The analysis delves writer’s apparent sympathy with the adventurous, short, blunt sentences and it does not mean short, Lefevere views translation not as a reflection of the into translation shifts—notable textual changes that naughty child frees them from all moral judgment blunt words” (28). Further, even the most simple original text but as a refraction of it; by refraction, he have taken place during translation. I will discuss (187). Exactly as their creator, Potter’s subversive sentences must have “a good shape”: picturebooks refers to “the adaptation of a work of literature to a how these shifts change the overall tone of the book, characters rebel against most accepted values of will be read aloud—often time and again—and they different audience, with the intention of influencing making the story scarier for the Finnish child reader. their time: religious rigidity and bourgeois values, therefore depend on easy, musical sentence-rhythms the way in which that audience reads the work” I will propose that while Potter’s original story en- such as tidiness, as well as the rigorousness of the (Fisher 26). The style of Beatrix Potter’s writing is (205). According to Lefevere, a writer’s work is courages the child reader to adventurous behavior, class system (Carpenter, “Excessively Impertinent renowned for being deceptively simple: As Joyce always understood through “misunderstandings and the Finnish translation warns the child reader against Bunnies” 279; Briggs 187). Yet, while Potter’s books Whalley and Tessa Chester describe in their History misconceptions” (205). A translation, therefore, is disobedience. regularly introduce rebellion to point of danger and of Book Illustration, even though “each word is concise always a refraction of the source text because the hazard (Nesbitt 325), the child reader is always com- and controlled, her phrases are full of nuance” (165). text is processed through the understanding (and Interpreting Potter forted in the end by a secure, satisfying conclusion Nesbitt praises “the music of well-chosen words” misunderstanding) of the translator. Building on this Carpenter proposes that Potter’s biography written (Townsend 156); Nesbitt aptly remarks that while and “the lilt of the rhythm” in Potter’s writing (326); idea, a translation of a children’s book can be claimed by Margaret Lane in 1946 led the public to regard small children want suspense, they will not tolerate Briggs admires “the elegance and wit of her prose” to be a refraction of the original, processed through Potter as a lonely, introverted individual who, unable tragedy at the end (325). (186). Analyses of Potter’s writing also often praise the understanding (and misunderstanding) of what to achieve normal human relationships, resorted to As Potter’s literary work in general, The Tale of Pe- the dry, shrewd humor common to all of her stories the translator believes is best for the child reader. the company of animals (“Excessively Impertinent ter Rabbit, too, has frequently been interpreted as an (e.g., Townsend 156; Briggs 186; Nesbitt 325). As Gillian Lathey writes, translators are often Bunnies” 279). For decades, Potter’s work was con- intimidating, cautionary tale. For instance, Charles One of the many reasons behind the continuing considered to be “invisible” in the literary field (1), sidered as a shining example of children’s stories with Frey refers to the tale as “a fearful process” in which allure of Potter’s writing could be that she genuinely and the translators of children’s literature appear to moral attitudes (278). However, the general interpre- “[l]ife becomes a losing” (108, 111). However, Potter’s aimed her words for a child audience. Nesbitt be the most invisible of all. Yet, Lathey continues, tation of Potter’s character was drastically changed own interpretation of the tale and the mindset of its describes that Potter had thorough knowledge of the translator is always present in the translated work, after her personal journal—written in code—was main character are well reflected in, for instance, a small children’s experience of the world and a perfect displayed in the additions, omissions, and adaptations deciphered by Leslie Linder in 1958. The journal, letter she wrote after the book had been published. sympathy for their sense of wonder (320–327). Further, that have taken place during translation (2). The kept by Potter between the ages of fifteen and thirty, Potter used to write miniature letters that represent- Potter often subjected her writing to the criticism of following analysis aims to show that the Finnish presents a determined young woman full of firmly ed correspondence between her book characters. the children in her life before it was published. In fact, translator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Riitta Björklund, is held opinions (Carpenter, Secret Gardens 138, 142). Pot- The letters were then sent to children she knew. In even Potter herself has suggested that the success of eminently present in the translation, to the extent that ter contemned the norms of the society into which one of these tiny letters, Peter Rabbit writes to Mr. The Tale of Peter Rabbit could well be due to the fact that the entire story appears to be presented to the new she was born; being a girl, she had no opportunity McGregor, asking him if his spring cabbages were it was written with an actual child in mind—not made target audience via a filter of patronizing comment. to create a life of her own (Nesbitt 319). This new ready (Emerson 61). It is obvious that in Potter’s own to order for a publisher (Emerson 14).

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Analysis of the Finnish Translation retrieved from Potter’s detailed images and coming content has been added). Simple “wandering about” translation. The name of Mr. McGregor has been The method of analysis followed in the study involved up with translation solutions that corresponded to has become “cautious skipping” (modulation; change translated into Finnish as herra Mörökölli (Mr. Bogey- analyzing the data—Potter’s book and Björklund’s the illustrations rather than the verbal story (see in semantic content) and “looking for an escape man). It is reasonable to suggest that this translation translation—for translation shifts. Translation shifts, as Ketola). Other modulations and mutations were route” (mutation). Further, in Example 3, the Finnish solution will affect a child’s overall impression of the defined by John C. Catford, are “departures from related to adding elements of fear to the story. Table translation does not only mention that Peter is safe story; after all, entering into the garden of a farmer formal correspondence” in the process going from 1 presents five example sentences that contain after exiting the garden but adds a dramatic impact is quite different from entering into the garden of a the original text to its translation (73). In other words, such shifts. The column on the left introduces the to the scene by stating that he now was “far from bogeyman. The Romanian translation, on the oth- translation shifts are notable differences between the original phrase of the source text in English, the the terrors of the garden” (mutation). Moreover, in er hand, has maintained the English surname (Co- two texts. The present analysis was interested in column in the middle introduces its translation into Example 4, the English original simply states that cargeanu 220). The character’s name in the original finding two different types of shifts: Finnish, and the column on the right shows its back- Peter did not look back while running home— book most likely does not carry specific narrative translation into English (translated by the author of perhaps emphasizing the speed of his scamper. significance. When asked about the name of the • Words in the translation that differ from the article). The translation shifts are highlighted However, the Finnish translation claims that “he was character, Beatrix Potter concluded that she does not their counterparts in the original, either in the examples: Modulations (changes in semantic too frightened to stop until he got home” (mutation). remember how she came up with it. Yet, it has since semantically or stylistically (referred to content) are in bold, while mutations (additions) are In the end of the story, Potter describes how the been established that Potter actually wrote the story as modulation by Kitty van Leuven-Zwart in bold and underlined. rabbit mother prepares some chamomile tea for her in a summer house that had been sub-let from of a [159–64]) As may be seen from the examples, the Finnish son. Ellen Handler Spitz introduces an interesting gentleman called Mr. McGregor in 1893 (Emerson • Words that have been added to the translator has added repeated comments about how comparison of two different ways in which the 37); the choice of name might have been subcon- translation, or words in the translation frightened the main character supposedly was during ending may be interpreted: scious. that do not have a counterpart in the his adventure. In Example 1, a mutation (an addition) The translation shifts may well stem from the original text (referred to as mutation by has taken place. In the translator’s interpretation, Is chamomile tea a punishment for Peter? translator’s interpretation of the moral of the story; van Leuven-Zwart [168–9]) Peter did not simply forget the way back to the gate; Was it a soothing remedy administered to after all, at the time the Finnish translation was pro- he forgot it “because he was frightened.” Example the shivering little bunny in order to calm duced, the story was still generally interpreted as Some of the modulations and mutations in the 2 includes instances of both types of shifts. In the him down and settle his stomach after he a deeply cautionary tale. These shifts bring about data were related to adapting the translation to the Finnish translation, Peter did not just look around in had been so frightened and had consumed moral attitudes. One could claim that by telling the illustrations of the book: both adding information the garden; he looked around “with fright” (mutation; so many lettuces, beans, and radishes? Was Finnish child reader how afraid Peter Rabbit was Mother Rabbit’s behavior disciplinary and during his adventure, the translator is telling the depriving or kind and restorative? (1–2) child readers that they, too, might end up at the mer- TABLE 1. EXAMPLES OF TRANSLATION SHIFTS IN THE DATA cy of a bogeyman—unless they do what they are told. The Finnish translator of the story appears to have Original Phrase Finnish Translation Back-translation into English interpreted the beverage as a punishment for the Conclusions [H]e rushed all over the garden, for Se alkoi säntäillä sinne tänne etsien He started rushing here and there young rabbit, as a notable addition has been made A picturebook, when translated, no longer he had forgotten the way back to the porttia, jonka se pelästyksissään oli looking for the gate, which he, being into the translation (Example 5): “Go ahead and necessarily conveys the exact same story for the gate. kerrassaan kadottanut näkyvistään. frightened, had lost from sight. guess if Peter liked chamomile tea! No, he did not.” new audience. The translation of picturebooks After a time he began to wander Hetken kuluttua se alkoi etsiä After a while he began to look for As discussed above, after introducing danger and may involve manipulation of the text according about, going lippity – lippity – not pakotietä varovasti hypellen ja an escape route, skipping about hazard, Potter’s stories always end with a satisfying to how the translator perceives the needs of the very fast, and looking all around. pälyillen pelokkaasti ympärilleen. cautiously and glancing all around conclusion. The Finnish child reader, however, is child reader. Examining the Finnish translation by him with fright. deprived of an ending that could be interpreted as Riitta Björklund of The Tale of Peter Rabbit offers an He slipped underneath the gate, and Se pujahti portin alitse – ja viimeinkin He slipped under the gate – and at satisfactory. Interestingly, similar observations have illustrative example of what Lefevere refers to when was safe at last in the wood outside se oli turvassa metsän siimeksessä, last he was safe in the wood, far from been made by Dana-Mihaela Cocargeanu, who has talking about translations as refractions: Potter’s the garden. kaukana puutarhan kauhuista. the terrors of the garden. examined the translation of The Tale of Peter Rabbit into story has been processed through the translator’s Romanian. Cocargeanu reports that when translating misunderstandings and misconceptions of the moral Peter never stopped running or Mutta Petteri juosta vilisti taakseen But Peter ran without looking back looked behind him till he got home katsomatta yhä syvemmälle metsään deeper and deeper into the wood and “and she gave a dose of it to Peter” into Romanian, of the story. Further, the translation has been written to the big fr-tree. eikä se uskaltanut pysähtyä ennenkuin he was too frightened to stop until he the translator has replaced “Peter” with the words with the intention of influencing the way in which kotona suuren männyn alla. got home to the big fr-tree “her mischievous son.” As Cocargeanu concludes, the Finnish child audience reacts to it. By adding this reflects the addition of an “emotional attitude elements of fear to the story, the translator adds a His mother put him to bed, and made Rouva Kaniini pani sen vuoteeseen Mrs. Rabbit put him to bed and some chamomile tea; and she gave a ja valmisti sille lääkkeeksi prepared him some chamomile tea to from the part of the narrator” (228–229). layer of adult comment. Unlike the original story, the dose of it to Peter! kamomillateetä. Ja arvatkaapas, medicate him. Go ahead and guess Apart from the modulations and mutations in- translation is delivered in a spirit of condescension. pitikö Petteri kamomillateestä! Ei if Peter liked chamomile tea! No, he troduced in Table 1, the name of Peter’s adversary Producing children’s literature with such intentions pitänyt. did not. has also gone through a modulation in the Finnish cannot be said to be typical in Finland. Since

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the mid-nineteenth century, Finnish children’s translation but decided to change this particular Catford, John C. A Linguistic Theory of Translation: literature has been characterized by an attempt to translation solution. An Essay on Applied Linguistics. London: Oxford touch the child readers emotionally and to awaken To sum up, while the translations of The Tale of University Press, 1965. Cocargeanu, Dana-Mihaela. Children’s Literature across their imagination instead of moralizing the readers Peter Rabbit into other languages are still continuously Space and Time: The Challenges of Translating by producing insistent encouragements to virtue reprinted, the Finnish version of the book did not Beatrix Potter’s Tales into Romanian. PhD Thesis, (Ihonen 12, 22–23). One might therefore propose prove to be a commercial success. At the time of Dublin City University, School of Applied Language that the overall translation strategy of the book has writing this article, Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, the and Intercultural Studies, 2015. Emerson, Anne, editor. The History of The Tale of Peter gone against the prevailing norms of the literary field. largest national bookstore chain in Finland, offered Rabbit: taken mainly from Leslie Linder’s A History of As mentioned in the introduction, the Finnish the book in seven different languages (English, the Writings of Beatrix Potter, London: Frederick translation of The Tale of Peter Rabbit was first published Swedish, Italian, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Warne & Co, 1976. in an anthology of stories for children in 1967 and Arabic)—but not in Finnish. Further, in all of the Fisher, Margery. Intent upon Reading: A critical appraisal of modern fction for children. Leicester: as a picturebook in 1979. In fact, a total of thirteen libraries in Finland’s five largest cities (Helsinki, Brockhampton Press, 1961. Fennica—The National Finnish translations of Beatrix Potter’s Little Books Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, and Oulu) combined, only Bibliography of Finland. Search keyword: Beatrix were published between 1979 and 1980 (Fennica). one copy of the book’s Finnish translation could be Potter. Accessed 20 April 2017. The other twelve translations were made by two found. In other words, the Finnish translation of The Frey, Charles. “Victors and Victims in the Tales of Peter Rabbit and Squirrel Nutkin.” Children’s Literature in other translators. As the Finnish publisher does not Tale of Peter Rabbit seems to be long forgotten. One Education, vol.18 no.2, 1987, pp. 105–111. have a detailed record of the production process, it plausible explanation behind the poor success of the Ihonen, Markku. “Lasten paras tavara” [A child’s favourite is impossible to say why the same translator was not book in the country could well be that its translation thing]. Pieni suuri maailma. Suomalaisen lasten- ja commissioned again. The present article has not does not offer Finnish children the opportunity to nuortenkirjallisuuden historia [Small big world: History of children’s and young adult literature in Finland], set out to examine the other Finnish translations of enjoy the excitement that Potter’s original story edited by Liisa Huhtala, Karl Grünn, Ismo Loivamaa, Potter’s Little Books because of space constraints, offers English-speaking children. Unlike Potter’s and Maria Laukka, Helsinki: Tammi, 2003, pp. 11–19. but an interesting topic for future research would be original story, the translation does not encourage Ketola, Anne. “Translating picturebooks: Re-examining to examine whether these, too, have been made in the child reader to rebellion and adventurous interlingual and intersemiotic translation.” Proceed- ings of DRS, 2016, pp. 1179–1190. a patronizing vein or if they are more loyal to the behavior. Instead, it warns the child reader against Lefevere, André. “Mother Courage’s Cucumbers: Text, ANNE KETOLA is a PhD candidate at the University of adventurous spirit of the originals. None of the disobedience. Translating for children can, at its System and Refraction in a Theory of Literature.” Tampere, Finland. Her doctoral thesis examines the inter- thirteen translations was reprinted. As affirmed by, for worst, add an air of patronage to the story. Modern Language Studies vol. 12 no.4, 1982, pp. action of visual and verbal information during the trans- lation of illustrated texts. She is also a co-author of the instance, Judy Taylor in her book That Naughty Rabbit: 3–20. Rpt. in The Translation Studies Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti, 3rd ed., Routledge, 2012, pp. forthcoming monograph Revoicing Picturebooks (together Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit, Potter’s international WORKS CITED 203–219. with Riitta Oittinen and Melissa Garavini), examining the fame was indeed paved by the success of The Tale of PRIMARY SOURCES Linder, Leslie. A History of the Writings of Beatrix Potter. role of visual information within picturebook translation. Peter Rabbit. It is possible that precisely because the Björklund, Riitta, translator. Petteri Kaniini [Petteri the 2nd ed. London: Frederick Warne & Co, 1971. translation of Potter’s most important book did not Rabbit]. By Beatrix Potter, Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava, Nesbitt, Elizabeth. “Classics in Miniature.” A Critical 1967. History of Children’s Literature, edited by Cornelia raise notable interest in the Finnish literary market, —, translator. “Petteri Kaniini” [Petteri the Rabbit] By Meigs, Anne Thaxter Eaton, Elizabeth Nesbitt, and her other books did not gain a notable status in the Beatrix Potter. Peukaloputti, edited by Aili Palmen. Ruth Hill Viguers, 2nd ed., London: The Macmillan country either. Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava, 1967, pp. Company, 1969, pp. 318–328. The character of Peter Rabbit still frequently 148–153. Oittinen, Riitta. Translating for Children. New York: Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Peter Rabbit. 1902. London: Garland Publishing, 2000. appears for Finnish child audience in Nickelodeon’s Frederick Warne & Co, 2002. Spitz, Ellen Handler. Inside Picturebooks. New Haven: Yale animated preschool series entitled Peter Rabbit. The University Press, 1999. series is based on Potter’s books, but the adventures SECONDARY SOURCES Suojanen, Tytti, Kaisa Koskinen, and Tiina Tuominen. User- have been rewritten to the extent that a comparison ”About Beatrix Potter.” PeterRabbit.com. Frederick Warne Centered Translation. London: Routledge, 2015. & Co., 2016, http://www.peterrabbit.com/about- Suomalainen Kirjakauppa. “Beatrix Potter”. Retrieved of the translations—the translated picturebook and beatrix-potter/. Accessed 20 April 2017. from http://www.suomalainen.com. Accessed May 20, the dubbed audiovisual translation—would not result Briggs, Julia. “Transitions (1890–1914).” Children’s 2016. beneficial. Yet, it is worth mentioning that while Literature: An Illustrated History. Edited by Peter Taylor, Judy. That Naughty Rabbit: Beatrix Potter and the translations of the names of most characters in Hunt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. Peter Rabbit. London: Frederick Warne, 2002. 167–191. Townsend, John Rowe. Written for Children: An Outline the Finnish series follow the original picturebook Carpenter, Humphrey. “Excessively Impertinent Bunnies: of English-language Children’s Literature. 2nd ed. translation, Mr. McGregor’s name has been The Subversive Element in Beatrix Potter.” Children Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd, 1983. changed from “Mr. Bogeyman” to Mr. Vänskä, which and Their Books, edited by Gillian Avery and Julia van Leuven-Zwart, Kitty M. “Translation and original: is a common Finnish surname with no apparent Briggs. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, pp. 271–298. Similarities and dissimilarities, I.” Target vol. 1 no.2, —. Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of 1989, pp. 151–181. connotations. This shows that the audiovisual Children’s Literature. Boston: Houghton Miffin Whalley, Joyce Irene and Tessa Rose Chester. A History of translation team has examined the picturebook Company, 1985. Book Illustration. London: John Murray Publishers, 1988.

BOOKBIRD 18 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 19 55.3–2017 FEMALE EMPOWERMENT AND UNDOCUMENTED BORDER CROSSING IN Articles BETTINA RESTREPO’S ILLEGAL Female Empowerment and Undocumented Border Crossing in Bettina Restrepo’s Illegal

Cristina Rhodes

Confronting the realities of undocumented immi- persons, who may share their heritage, are not want- While the current political climate of the United States perpetuates the gration, movement, and diaspora in children’s and ed here, they do not belong” (24). Yet, this sense narrative that undocumented immigrants are criminals, children’s and young adult (YA) literature means rethinking the way of not belonging is redressed in children’s and YA young adult novels—like Bettina Restrepo’s Illegal—provide a much-needed childhood agency is constructed for an audience literature that explore the travails of undocumented that expects both sanitized portraits of childhood border crossing. Despite the proliferation of negative counternarrative. Instead of painting its characters as delinquents or victims, and critical representations of undocumented im- views of undocumented immigration in popular cul- Illegal is the empowering story of Nora, a ffteen-year-old undocumented migrants. The images most Americans have access ture, some YA literature offers a different perspective. immigrant who must leave her native Mexico when her father goes to concerning undocumented immigration are often As the numbers of undocumented child border missing in Houston. During her border crossing journey, Nora achieves skewed, depicting harsh realities along the border, crossers rises, it becomes immediately necessary to like narcotráfico and violence; the reliance on such understand their place within children’s literature self-discovery and actualization by embracing her inner strength despite graphic, jarring images constructs negative attitudes and how that positioning affects the construction of facing insurmountable odds. Reading Nora through the lens of Gloria toward undocumented immigration.1 Furthermore, childhood agency.2 Whereas children are often re- Anzaldúa’s theory of the Shadow-Beast, a subversive identity that empowers the polemical rhetoric surrounding undocumented garded as being in need of protection, the reality is immigration in the United States disproportionately that undocumented children are responsible for pro- young women to awaken their agency through subversive acts like border affects undocumented children, who must process tecting themselves. The impetus for undocumented crossing, allows for an understanding of how Nora’s awakening as this the notion that “while some children occupy an al- child border crossers’ agency, then, is their ostensible female fgure complicates contemporary conceptions of childhood power most sacred space within the cultural imagination, powerlessness. Young border crossers must eschew a others are demonized” through popular culture’s por- traditional childhood and develop a sense of power and control. Instead of succumbing to the trials along the border, Nora trayal of them (Mackey 173). Thus, as Oralia Garza over themselves typically not associated with chil- thrives and becomes the savior of her family while she empowers herself de Cortes explains, “the message Latino children are dren or childhood. This sense of empowerment is and awakens her Shadow-Beast hearing is a sad commentary—that undocumented particularly important for adolescent female border

BOOKBIRD 20 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 21 55.3–2017 FEMALE EMPOWERMENT AND UNDOCUMENTED BORDER CROSSING IN FEMALE EMPOWERMENT AND UNDOCUMENTED BORDER CROSSING IN BETTINA RESTREPO’S ILLEGAL BETTINA RESTREPO’S ILLEGAL crossers, who adopt what Chicana theorist Gloria buried under the personality that had been imposed Empowerment in Border Crossing strepo 52). In this moment, when she is locked away, Anzaldúa calls the Shadow-Beast, a subversive figure on me” (38). Anzaldúa argues that there are only While undocumented border crossing is invariably she is stripped of her growing agency. Along the whose power is born from her marginalization. For four possible options for Latinas: motherhood, illegal, it also is an act of hope that one can achieve journey, the truck driver does not give them water Anzaldúa, the Shadow-Beast challenges dominant the church, prostitution, or, more recently and freedom by escaping a tumultuous homeland. The or allow them respite from the oppressive heat inside ideologies by embracing the hybridity that diaspo- exclusively, education (39). Because Latinx culture choice to pursue a better future is what makes un- the trailer, and Nora cannot exercise any control in ra breeds. Further, the ease with which the Shad- offers women very little control, the Shadow-Beast documented border crossing for Nora, and others this situation. Because of their confinement, Nora’s ow-Beast traverses the turbulent landscape of the provides avenues for empowerment. Like the child likes her, a positive experience. Furthermore, by mother falls ill while locked in the mango truck, and borderlands marks her as an agent of female power. who must some day grow up and understand the choosing to move from a male-dominated space in Nora assumes a pseudo-parental, protective role. By Bettina Restrepo’s novel, Illegal (2011), addresses the responsibilities of late adolescence and adulthood, Mexico, Nora chooses to reclaim her female power emulating her mother, she begins to cultivate her position of the Shadow-Beast in undocumented bor- the Shadow-Beast must first leave her home to as she enters into the borderlands. In the scope of subversive agency as the Shadow-Beast. While she der-crossing narratives by chronicling fifteen-year-old fully understand who she is. Because “the ideas of the few chapters of Illegal that depict Nora’s actual act is decidedly not a parent, she must take charge like Nora’s journey across the border with her mother in home and homelessness serve as touchstones for of border crossing, her journey for agency stemming one to survive. Like Anzaldúa’s rebellious Shad- search of her father after his paychecks stop com- the articulation of self-identity,” the undocumented from her marginalized position begins. Using what ow-Beast, Nora rejects genealogical hierarchies to ing to their poverty-stricken, Mexican town. Nora’s immigrant Shadow-Beast’s sense of home, in her little money she and her mother have saved, the pair ensure that she and her mother make it to the United story is particularly poignant as it speaks not just to native country, abroad, and within the borderlands, buy space in the back of a tractor-trailer transporting States. Nora rationalizes, “[Mama] was weak. I had the oppressed experiences of third-world women but produces her agency and empowerment (Pérez- mangos to Houston. Yet, Nora’s power as a border to be the strong one” (Restrepo 62). Upon realizing also to the experiences of children who are often dis- Torres 197). The young, undocumented Shadow- crosser is consistently informed by the presence of that her mother’s condition is quickly deteriorating, counted because of their age and inexperience. For Beast negotiates adolescence while also confronting her masculine antithesis. The obverse of her female Nora resolves to “not allow this man continue his young women like Nora, who are able to become her legal status and the complications that arise from power manifests in the negative influence of the men quest to kill us” (Restrepo 63). Like her warning Shadow-Beasts through the act of immigrating, bor- being “illegal.” In many ways, those who “waken the she is highly dependent on to cross the border and against the man who threatened to assault her, Nora der crossing is the means by which they can assert Shadow-Beast inside” to empower themselves do the seemingly positive impact of her missing father. takes back control in this situation by refusing to be their power and form their identity. Nora is em- so against the regulations of their culture and the Furthermore, Nora initially views border cross- victimized. powered by embracing the subversive act of border dominant culture (Anzaldúa 42). ing as a typically masculine act. She reasons, “At least Moreover, she takes control by protecting her crossing, which is part and parcel of awakening her For Nora, then, awakening the Shadow-Beast half of the men in our town, including Papa ... had mother—an act that establishes her pseudo-paren- identity as a Shadow-Beast. means working against the dehumanizing effects of already left for the border. Soon the little boys play- tal authority as distinctly female. When Nora flips geopolitics. In occupying a space that is neither ille- ing in the doorway would disappear too” (Restrepo the mother/child dichotomy and acts out against The Shadow-Beast gal nor fully legal, through the act of border-crossing, 13–14). Early in the text, she believes that only men the masculine power of the truck driver—and, by Anzaldúa’s Shadow-Beast is inherently an immigrant Nora comes to occupy a third space—a world charac- can travel to the United States to seek employment, extension, the masculine power of her paternalistic herself. Latinas are often confined by their culture’s terized by the “choice: to feel a victim where some- since they are the natural breadwinners for their culture—Nora establishes her female power. When beliefs about female agency; necessarily, the Shad- one else is in control” or to take back control and families left behind in Mexico. The moment Nora the driver threatens to call the police on Nora and ow-Beast rebels against these limitations. It is im- “feel strong,” despite being marginalized (Anzaldúa decides that she and her mother must cross the bor- her ill mother, Nora has the strength to attack him; portant to note that the Shadow-Beast’s immigrant 43). In this space, Nora actively chooses control. She der, she takes back the patriarchal monopoly on bor- remembering her grandmother’s instruction to “get status is that of both the literal immigrant, who cross- thinks, “I was growing braver. No thoughts, only ac- der crossing. Despite her grandmother’s, and often them in the vulnerable spots,” Nora disables the driv- es borders and moves from one place to another, and tions. I wasn’t waiting for someone to save us” (Re- her mother’s, protestations that they need to stay in er by scratching at his eyes, effectively blinding him the metaphorical immigrant, whose fluid identity tra- strepo 69). Thus, Nora’s border crossing becomes the Mexico to wait for her father’s return, Nora makes and allowing her and her mother to escape (Restrepo verses penetrable boundaries. The Shadow-Beast’s catalyst for her ability to become a Shadow-Beast. the decision that they need to cross the border to 65). Clearly, the conception of the gaze plays into place as an immigrant is highlighted in texts like Yet Nora’s transition into adulthood and into being find him. Nora fights for her opportunity to cross the this scene as, rather than being the passive object Restrepo’s Illegal, which deal immediately with the a Shadow-Beast is compounded by her omnipresent border, and she defies any men who would take ad- of the truck driver’s gaze, Nora fights against it. In fraught space of the Mexican-American border, but characterization as a lesser being because of her lack vantage of her and her mother. At one point on the blinding him, she erases his understanding of her as more than that, the immigrating Shadow-Beast is di- of legal documentation. She rails against the dehu- journey, a man propositions Nora, telling her “May- a weak woman and a sexualized object. The con- rectly connected to the idea of adolescence as an manizing effects of being reduced solely to her legal be I do have time for you today” before he “loosened stant fear that Nora and her mother will not just be ephemeral process leading to eventual maturity and status when she exclaims: “We don’t even count as his belt,” but Nora fights back and threatens to “cut deported during their border crossing but also raped agency. people here!” (Restrepo 226). Nora’s mother com- [him] into pieces and feed [him] to a pig” should he is alleviated through this action. Though Nora could Comparable to the undocumented immigrant, forts her by stating, “We may not matter to America, harm her (Restrepo 48–49). have easily attempted to harm his genitals, it is an the Shadow-Beast’s motion separates her from but we are important to each other” (Restrepo 229). In another scene, while travelling in the mango important distinction to make that in order to real- any sense of home, but this separation proves Accepted by neither their homeland nor the United truck across the border, it becomes increasingly ev- ize her inherent, female power, she does not need to empowering. In Borderlands/La Frontera, Anzaldúa States, Nora must embrace her hybrid position and ident that the driver of the truck intends to abuse threaten his maleness; rather, she only needs to alter explains her own experiences: “I had to leave home her Shadow-Beast to mitigate her feelings of disloca- Nora and her mother. As he locks them in the trail- his perception of her. so I could find myself, find my own intrinsic nature tion. er, Nora panics and thinks, “We were trapped” (Re- Further, Nora shatters perceptions of undocu-

BOOKBIRD 22 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 23 55.3–2017 FEMALE EMPOWERMENT AND UNDOCUMENTED BORDER CROSSING IN FEMALE EMPOWERMENT AND UNDOCUMENTED BORDER CROSSING IN BETTINA RESTREPO’S ILLEGAL BETTINA RESTREPO’S ILLEGAL mented immigration as a whole. Though the dom- Furthermore, Nora’s connection to this iconic only imbues it with more power. This visible sym- women, the decentering of the local, the widening inant narrative of undocumented immigration is one borderlands symbol situates her as a hybridized sub- bol of the Virgen is a clear display of Nora’s physical of the spatial horizons may have liberating effects,” of crime perpetrated by gang members, Nora never ject. Anzaldúa’s Virgen de Guadalupe is a syncre- maturation as she becomes a woman capable of bear- border crossing for Nora has another effect beyond acts as a criminal. Her depiction provides a count- tized hybrid of the Aztec Tonantzin and the Cath- ing children. Later in the text, when Nora attends a liberation (McDowell 31). In lieu of a quinceañera, er-narrative to the prevailing narratives of the undoc- olic Virgin Mary (Lara 107). As such, Guadalupe’s church service with her grandmother to go to con- Nora’s journey across the border acts as her entrance umented immigrant experience. Rather than being hybridity works on multiple levels: first, as a symbol fessional, she puts the stained dress on for the first into adulthood. the villain that popular culture crafts undocumented for Nora’s dual position as both and neither Mexican time in months. Since she and her mother arrived immigrants to be, Nora is a Shadow-Beast who re- nor American; second, through her repositioning of in Houston, Nora had preferred to keep the dress Rejecting Victimization jects the inferior positioning of her age and gender power within the male/female dichotomy; and fi- hidden. She cannot wear the dress again after her Another hallmark of her dawning agency and matu- and gains power through her choice to cross the bor- nally, as a representations of “the hybridity between trauma and rebirth on the border because she must ration is Nora’s rejection of victimhood. Throughout der. childhood and adulthood that all teenagers experi- first accept her new position as a Shadow-Beast. Un- the narrative, Nora constantly repeats the phrase “I ence” (Cook 26). In Houston, Nora is still a child, til Nora understands her new power, the dress must am not a victim” (Restrepo 154, 166, 189). Nora’s La Virgen but she has all of the responsibilities of an adult; she remain hidden. Only when she truly starts to come self-affirmation against victimhood is particularly To best explore Nora’s transformation into the pow- reflects: “I was trying to stay a little girl, even though into her own as a Shadow-Beast can she don the important because women are at a greater risk of vi- erful Shadow-Beast, however, it is important to first womanhood sprouted out of me in a new ways every dress once again, this time with pride. Nora even no- olence during border crossings. However, the act of understand what drove her to become an undocu- day” (Restrepo 29). For Nora, becoming a woman is tices her physical growth when she puts on the dress border crossing imbues Nora with the power of the mented immigrant: her relationship with her father. a precarious process, fraught with danger, both on this time, thinking, “When I slipped it over my body, Shadow-Beast and allows her to establish an identity Initially, it is the memory of her father that spurs the border and within her own psyche. I realized it was shorter. It used to touch the bottom beyond being a victim of her circumstances. In resist- her journey to the United States. Nevertheless, this of my knees,” and now the dress fits her new, wom- ing victimization, Nora instead recognizes that the foundation shifts as Nora simultaneously rejects her Female Growth anly body in ways it previously had not (Restrepo experience of border crossing has altered her identi- father’s influence and accepts that of the Virgen de Nora’s awakening as a Shadow-Beast occurs after 239). The dress is a symbol of Nora’s female growth, ty, “something had changed [her] in the back of the Guadalupe. She symbolically adopts the image of her transition from child to young woman. Becom- both in relation to her physical and emotional matu- truck” (Restrepo 84). Guadalupe, a figure who guides her on her journey ing a woman is a bodily process and an event that ration. Yet, while Nora changes and enters the hybrid- and whose medallion her grandmother gives her on Nora experiences in two ways: first, her adolescent Despite growing up as she crosses the border, ized space of the borderlands, patriarchal power her sixteenth birthday “because of [her] faith and maturation through the beginning of menstruation; and eventually accepting her new womanhood, is still present in her life. For Nora, the patriarchy courage” (Restrepo 250). According to Gloria Anz- and second, her emergence as a new woman as she throughout the narrative Nora vacillates between remains in place until she learns that her father aldúa, “La Virgen de Guadalupe is the symbol of ethnic crosses the border. The borderlands are a space brazen bravery and little-girl dreams. Her continuing has died on a job site in Houston. Divorced from identity and of the tolerance for ambiguity that Chi- of possibility and, thus, a fertile ground for Nora. desire for a quinceañera may seem, at times, childish, a male-centric power source, Nora cleaves to the canos-mexicanos, ... people who cross cultures, by Though the physical third space of the borderlands but as Rafael Montes contends, “the celebration ... “single most potent religious, political and cultural necessity possess” (52). Guadalupe epitomizes the is dangerous, it is the prime location for marginalized serves as a marker of ethnic pride and as a sign of the image of the Chicano/mexicano” identity: la Virgen ideals of the Shadow-Beast as both a powerful wom- peoples to establish their own agencies free from the potentially emancipatory nature of femininity” (371). de Guadalupe (Anzaldúa 52). Her father’s continued an and a sacrificial one. It is no coincidence then that hegemonic power of the homeland or the new land. Even when the narrative grows tense, Nora clings to absence leaves Nora bereft and vulnerable, but it the Virgen de Guadalupe guides Nora throughout Stripped of her political agency in the dichotomous the dream of a quinceañera. In Nora’s cultural imagi- also provides her the opportunity to fully embrace her journey. Guadalupe manifests as the voice that worlds of the United States and Mexico, Nora works nation, the quinceañera is the paragon of female ma- her role as a Shadow-Beast. Nora cultivates her own Nora hears inside her head and that speaks to her within these spaces to reclaim power over herself turity, but this paradigm must shift as Nora’s agency agency through the voice of the Virgen inside her in her moments of need. As Nora crosses the border through her Shadow-Beast. becomes increasingly less anchored to the norms of head, which fuels her position as the Shadow-Beast in the Rio Grande Valley, she looks for a sign from Influenced by the fertility of the third space, her Mexican heritage and necessarily more aligned because of the Virgen’s hybridized iconography. the Virgen; she thinks, “Searching my mind for the Nora’s womanhood unfolds through metaphors of with her need for control in the United States. In the epilogue, Nora, still living in the United voices I had heard in Cedula, I imagined the dark menstruation. The superficial wound Nora receives During an argument with her mother, Nora shouts: States and attending high school, visits her father’s eyes of the Virgin Guadalupe ... Maybe I could pray from the mango truck driver during their scuffle “I know I’m here in America, where everything is grave on the anniversary of his death. She thinks, for her strength? Maybe roses would appear in the drips blood onto her dress, leaving a stain. Restrepo supposed to be better. But it isn’t. I want to live in “One year ago..., we found him. His death. My wom- darkness as a sign we would be okay?” (Restrepo links this stain with the powerful female figure of the a place that doesn’t smell like garbage. I want my anhood” (Restrepo 248). For Nora, her journey across 52–53). In the moments leading up to her rebirth Virgen, as “when [Nora] looked closer at the stain, quinceañera. I want to be fifteen again’” (Restrepo the border triggers her maturation, but her father’s as a Shadow-Beast as she crosses the border, Nora [she] could see it. A rose. The Virgin of Guada- 201). This desire to be fifteen “again” is jarring— death solidifies it. She is no longer part of the binary cleaves to the comforting image of the Virgen, both lupe’s rose. She sent a vision of roses. It was a sign of when Nora speaks these lines, she is still fifteen of male/female because her father’s death means she as a reminder of her Mexican past and as an emblem strength” (Restrepo 72). The blood is also a sign of years old; but now that she must navigate the treach- need not remain dependent upon her masculine an- of her prosperous future. In the absence of her father, Nora’s maturation, an analogue for the blood of her erous landscape of the United States, she comes to tithesis. Outside of the patriarchal rule of her father, Nora looks to the quintessential mother figure—the menstrual cycle. The fact that this blood adopts an understand that her childhood and her adolescence Nora establishes a new order; her father’s absence Virgin Mary, the Virgen de Guadalupe. image synonymous with the Virgen de Guadalupe have been left behind in Mexico. Though “for many provides the space for the Shadow-Beast and the

BOOKBIRD 24 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 25 55.3–2017 FEMALE EMPOWERMENT AND UNDOCUMENTED BORDER CROSSING IN FEMALE EMPOWERMENT AND UNDOCUMENTED BORDER CROSSING IN BETTINA RESTREPO’S ILLEGAL BETTINA RESTREPO’S ILLEGAL

Virgen to move in. While she was within the patriar- WORKS CITED Cristina Rhodes is a doctoral student at Texas A&M chal hierarchy, Nora could still be a victim because CHILDREN’S BOOKS University – Commerce. Her research focuses on Latinx of her marginal position to her father, but outside of Restrepo, Bettina. Illegal. Katherine Tegen Books, 2011. children’s and young adult literature, with a particular interest in literacy and subjectivity. While pursuing this his hierarchy, Nora cannot be a victim. She acts as an SECONDARY SOURCES scholarship, Cristina also teaches frst year composition, agent within her own space. Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New developmental writing, and children’s literature. Fully actualized within the liminal space of the Mestiza. 4th ed., Aunt Lute Books, 2012. borderlands, Nora’s power becomes a model for oth- Cook, Christi. One High Heel on Each Side of the Border: A Closer Look at Gender and Sexuality in Chicana and er female border-crossers. Nora’s journey for power Anglo Young Adult Literature. Dissertation, The Uni- acts as a road map—starting at her home in Mexico, versity of Texas at Arlington, 2013. where she lacked autonomy and still existed under de Cortes, Oralia Garza. “Behind the Golden Door: the patriarchal influence of her father, and ending in The Latino Immigrant Child in Literature and Films for Children.” Multicultural Review, vol. 4, no. 2, 1995, Houston after her border crossing, where her subver- pp. 24–27, 59–62. MLA International Bibliography. 7 sive position as an undocumented immigrant defies Jan. 2015. the patriarchal domination of the US government. By Garcia, Antero. Critical Foundations in Young Adult reclaiming the borderland as a space for power and Literature: Challenging Genres. Sense Publishers, 2013. self-actualization, border crossers like Nora move be- “Immigration Enforcement Actions: 2013.” Department yond being geopolitical subjects and can find power of Homeland Security. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/ independent from their cultural norm. Because Nora default/fles/publications/ois_enforcement_ar_2013.pdf accepts her role in the borderlands by acknowledg- KRGV. “The Face of the Undocumented Child.” KRGV. 8 May 2014. http://www.krgv.com ing her position as a Shadow-Beast and the image of story/30745022/the-face-of-the-undocumented-child the Virgen de Guadalupe, she becomes a paragon of Lara, Irene. “Goddess of the Américas in the Decolonial female empowerment in the face of political oppres- Imaginary: Beyond the Virtuous Virgen/Pagan Puta sion. Dichotomy.” Feminist Studies, vol. 34, no. 1/2, 2008, pp. 99–127. MLA International Bibliography. 11 Moreover, Nora represents the hope that most March 2015. border-crossers, undocumented or otherwise, have: Mackey, Allison. “Make it Public! Border Pedagogy and their hope that border crossing is a freeing act and the Transcultural Politics of Hope in Contemporary that it yields positive gains. While this may not al- Cinematic Representations of Children.” College Literature, vol. 37, no. 2, 2010, pp.171–85. MLA Inter- This picturebook portrays a grumpy king who ways be the case, what Nora’s story illustrates is national Bibliography. 31 Jan. 2015. lives in a dark land with a gloomy society. The that border crossing is a powerful act of volition, and McDowell, Linda. “Spatializing Feminism: Geographic story begins with the king visiting a neighboring that it not only represents the migration between Perspectives.” Bodyspace: Destabilizing Geographies country where the sun is shining and the people two physical locales but also the transition into new of Gender and Sexuality, edited by Nancy Duncan. Routledge, 1996, pp. 28–44. are cheerful. There the grumpy king meets and roles and new lives. Nora would have never become S D R A C T S O P D R I B K O O B Montes, Rafael Miguel. “Fabricating Desires: The marries the cheerful princess, and they have a a Shadow-Beast were it not for her border crossing. Transformation of the Quinces Tradition in The choice to cross the border is the impetus of Multicultural Narratives.” Styling Texts: Dress and baby. Unfortunately, this baby is born without power for Nora, and it could be for other undocu- Fashion in Literature, edited by Cynthia Kuhn and facial features, and the land starts getting darker Cindy Carlson, Cambria Press, 2007, 369–88. mented immigrants like her. In the case of young, un- and darker. With the miracle of love and hope, the documented women, it is what they may choose to ENDNOTES sun begins to shine on this dark land once again. become after border crossing—like the empowered 1 I use the term narcotráfco to specifcally evoke the The story is about the age-old fght between dark Güneş Ülkesi figure of the Shadow-Beast, which fully transforms drug traffcking associated with Mexico, Central, and and light. Certain emotions are transferred to the (The Land of Sun) South America. Aysun Berktay Özmen them and allows them access to agency and autono- 2 According to the Department of Homeland Security’s reader with the carefully selected usage of color and Illus. Aysun Berktay Özmen my independent from hegemonic power. annual “Immigration Enforcement Action,” in 2013 gripping motifs. The illustrator merges simple yet the Department of Homeland Security apprehended Istanbul, Turkey: Altın Kitaplar clear drawings with content-appropriate collages. over four hundred thousand undocumented immigrants Publications, 2015. Unpaged. at the United States-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Early architectural concepts are embedded into the ISBN: 978-975-21-2060-0 Valley in southern Texas. Further, according to KRGV, picturebook and provide hints of Anatolian culture. a local news station in that area, more than twenty-six (Picturebook; ages 3+) thousand of those undocumented border crossers were Selin Arslanlar children.

BOOKBIRD 26 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 27 55.3–2017 Authors & “I AM A WRITER ON THE NOMADIC JOURNEY”: INTERVIEW WITH Their Books DASHONDOG JAMBA “I Am a Writer on the Nomadic Journey” Interview with Dashondog Jamba

Sunjidmaa Jamba

was raised in a felt ger (tent) of a nomadic my poems were written. When I read my poem they called fairy tales on a walk? Could they not be did not understand them. In many cases, unfortu- family. We had always been on the move. about a horse, children become cheerful, and their fairy tales on horseback?” She smiled and replied, nately, they killed the animals. I used my book Stone Every new place we moved to was so in- eyes shine as if they had grown up on horse back. “If they were fairy tales on horse-back, we could not Legends to tell stories about nature and speak on credible and beautiful that I experienced Sounds of pouring rain resonate from my poem catch up to them.” behalf of the animals to our young generation. The everything including grass, water, and wind as about rain. Sounds of wind can be heard from my I had been thinking of how to make fairy tales stories make children compassionate minded by Inew. So as the nomadic boy, I have been and am still poem about snow storms. A poem about a reindeer on horseback for many years. As my country be- loving animals and nature. moving from one style to a new style of writing by can resonate like the sound of riding a reindeer on a came a democratic country, I started to write books seeking a new melody and also a deeper meaning of snow path. freely without any external censorship. My stories, My Next Move: From Fairy Tale to words throughout my entire life as a children’s writer. The greatest part of my life was spent playing which were based on oriental wisdom and thinking, Picture Book with words over and over again to write the fine could finally be able to entertain and also support As a true nomad, I moved again to a new place of My First Move: From Snow to Paper lines of a poem. the imaginary thinking of children. That was not writing—the picturebook. I wrote my first poem on snow. I was around four the case during the previous system in Mongolia My first book in this place was Camel with Seven years old. I did not have any paper and I had not My Second Move: From Poem to Story before the 90s. Humps. It was a very strong rainy day in the Gobi yet learned the alphabet. So I drew my thoughts on In 1990, Mongolia started its transition from a Travelling by horse could reach much further desert. A small boy was sitting at home, drawing the snow. What did I draw? I drew a horse on which single-party and planned-economy system into than travelling on your own feet. Tales on Horseback pictures. He wanted to travel to a land of fairy tales. I had just learned to ride. Thinking back on that a multi-party and market-economy system. So I has reached readers beyond Mongolian children. Its But how? On camel-back! He drew a camel with time now, it was like an ancient painting on rocks. moved on from the flowery mountain hill of the stories were published in English, French, Russian, two humps and was about to ride it, but he saw his Later on, after I learned the alphabet at a local poem to the green grass steppe of the story. In this Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, etc. father. “Oh daddy, come along with me,” said the school, my horse drawings on the snow transformed new place, I carried on my melodic rhythms, but I In the mountain areas of Mongolia, there are boy and drew one more hump. Then he saw his to a poem on paper. Soon, the state publishing also tried to put big ideas into a small space. Tales many rocks which look like animals. From such mother. It was clearly understandable from her eyes house published my first book. A major national on Horseback was my first book in the green grass rocks, I developed and wrote stories about animals what she would be asking him: “Are you going to daily newspaper wrote about me that I was a chil- steppe. with kind hearts. Some animals came closer to travel without me?” One more hump appeared on dren’s author. I was seventeen at the time. My grandma used to tell me beautiful fairy tales people and asked for help when they were facing the camel. The boy decided to take all his family Somehow, melodies have always played in when I was a child. She called them fairy tales on difficulties. Some animals wanted to help people members and added humps for his older brother, my mind. I put those melodies on paper—thus a walk. One day I asked her, “Grandma, why are who were about to be in danger. However, people older sister, and younger brother on the camel’s

BOOKBIRD 28 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 29 55.3–2017 “I AM A WRITER ON THE NOMADIC JOURNEY”: INTERVIEW WITH Authors & DASHONDOG JAMBA Their Books back. A seven-hump camel was created. Like medical herb. Since then, the female and her male every child, the boy wanted to be with everyone in raven were grateful and often visited the woman the family all the time. where ever she lived and moved around. Having My latest picturebook is The Three Fallow Deer: been told and also experienced this true and re- “I’ve Got a Story The Legend of Orion. As a nomadic author, I am wor- markable story of the friendship between the old ried about our Mother Earth. The book addresses woman and the two ravens, I wrote my book An Old my and everyone’s concern about the future of Woman Who Speaks to Ravens. You Haven’t Heard” our planet. The book starts as follows. When man When I travelled over 137,000 km for over 24 started to use stone as a weapon, people started years with my mobile library throughout Mongolia, hunting deer to eat their meat. The ancient people I came across a lot of incredible and true stories. Conversation about were chasing after three beautiful deer in the forest. They inspired me to write nonfiction to recount As soon as the three deer were about to be caught, these true stories of the nomadic nation and how they flew into the sky to become the stars of Orion. they live in harmony with nature. So I started my the Art and Craft of Nonfction However, the three deer returned to Earth three new book, New Fairy Tales of the Nomads. times as they hoped that life on Earth would be Mother Earth is suffering greatly because of peaceful and safe again. Unfortunately, each time the wrongdoings of some its troubled children. She with Candace Fleming they returned, people were more advanced in their expects love and care from everyone on our planet use of weapons. So the deer had to leave their be- just like its nomadic children who love the Earth loved Mother Earth. All three deer were hurt, and sincerely and unconditionally. Teri Suico from Earth they look red and shiny like blood. Will This is not the end of my journey as a chil- they ever return? dren’s writer. I already envision my next journey as full of intellectual richness, creativity, and fruitful My Latest Move: From Picturebook to thinking to look for new places to move to. I do not Nonfction Book know yet where my thinking and passion will take When I travelled with my mobile library in the me. But I know well that my next journey is waiting uthor Candace Fleming’s books Gobi desert, I met an old woman who made friends for me. I am a writer on a nomadic journey! for young readers include novels with ravens for sixty years. When she was young, and picture books, but she is best the woman found a female raven which was injured. DASHDONDOG JAMBA known for her nonfiction young The woman saved the raven’s life with a local Mongolian children’s writer adult books. These include The ALincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary (2008), which won the 2009 ALA Notable Books, and The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia (2014), which won numerous honors and awards, including the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award and the Cybils Award in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Her works are characterized not just by their historic accuracy but also by the vivid detail and narrative Fleming skillfully weaves into her texts. From behind the scenes of the Civil War to the contrasting worlds of opulence and penury found in Russia just before the revolution, Fleming brings the past to life for her readers. Her latest publications—Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the Wild West (2016), a nonfiction YA book on the life of Buffalo Bill Cody, and Giant Squid, a nonfiction science picturebook that was named a Robert F. Siebert Informational Honor Book—con- tinue this tradition of presenting facts and making them as riveting to readers as fiction. In this Candace Fleming

BOOKBIRD 30 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 31 55.3–2017 “I’VE GOT A STORY YOU HAVEN’T HEARD”: CONVERSATION ABOUT THE ART AND CRAFT OF “I’VE GOT A STORY YOU HAVEN’T HEARD”: CONVERSATION ABOUT THE ART AND CRAFT OF NONFICTION WITH CANDACE FLEMING NONFICTION WITH CANDACE FLEMING conversation, Fleming discusses what attracts her to TS: You’ve written books about a number of figures as being central to the United States, including tails that will bring some scene alive, even if it’s the writing nonfiction, how she goes about finding the from American history, including Presenting Buffalo religion, speech, the press, and the right to petition. color of the carpet. right balance of accuracy and suspense, and what Bill and The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and I probably revised, with my editor, Anne Schwartz, I’m always aware that what I’m trying to do is she hopes her readers get from her books. Mary. And you also have The Family Romanov, which three times. I had a lot of primary sources, including get kids to read, and if they’re going to read non- is a departure from your usual topics. How did you interviews with people who had really challenged fiction like they do fiction, the nonfiction work Terri Suico: You’ve written a wide range of books end up writing a book on the last of the Romanov the First Amendment in ways that we don’t even has got to read as close to fiction as it possibly can. for children and young adults, but you seem to have dynasty? think about anymore. Some of them shared their Also, I think I pick the topics intentionally because an affinity and a real talent for nonfiction for this private stock, their collections, and their armbands, they’re great, exciting stories that have great arcs audience. What drew you to writing nonfiction for CF: I read Robert K. Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra and it was great. When I compiled the information, and you can’t help but be drawn to the story itself. adolescents, and what compels you to keep coming when I was twelve, and I fell in love with the I saw it didn’t have a lot of context, and I realized I’m always searching for some angle of that back to it? Romanovs. At the time, I missed the rest of the that I had to go back and talk about why we even story that maybe you haven’t heard before. When I story, such as the revolution and the peasants dying, have a Bill of Rights in the first place. Then I had take on a topic, many people will say, “You’re going Candace Fleming: I come to nonfiction kicking but I was really interested in the romantic elements. to explain that the First Amendment was really to write about that topic?” with the implication that and screaming, which is why I don’t have as many As an author, when I started going on school visits the Fourth Amendment, and the other three were the topic has been written about many times before. of those as I have of my other types of works. With and talking to middle schoolers about American tossed. That led to a discussion of how our First I tell them, “Yes, but I’ve got a story you haven’t nonfiction, I always say I’m not going to do it, and history, I would ask the students, “If you’re going Amendment rights, ones that we think of as our heard. I’m going to tell the story in a different way.” then invariably I end up writing about a nonfic- to write about somebody, who do you want to great American rights, weren’t really established That’s very important to me, and that comes down tion topic simply because it nags at me. I’ll read write about? Who are you so curious about that you until the 1930s. I tried writing and structuring the to story as well. I never know what I’m going to something that links to it or something that has would spend some time with them?” And, invari- book several different ways, including putting my- find, so I always keep an open mind. And I never completely had nothing to do with the topic, but in ably, girls would always raise their hands and say self in it because I’d had so many interesting inter- even know how I’m going to structure the book un- my head, suddenly the two are connected, and now “Anastasia.” Every time I got that answer, I thought views, but it just never worked. til I actually discover what it is that I’m trying to tell it’s a bigger idea. It’s almost like you’re doing the to myself, “Well, of course, because I probably Finally, Anne said, “You know, I’m thinking that with that story. research before you even get started. would have answered that question the same way we just have to call it on this one.” And, you know, Eventually, I get to that place where I say, “If I when I was their age.” So I thought to myself, “I’m I had never been so grateful to her; I needed some- TS: In The Hornbook, Betty Carter states that a strong actually want this book in the world, it’ll have to be going to write this book for them and for me.” body to give me permission to put it aside. While it biography for young readers is not mere didacti- me who does it.” I will fight it, but I love it, which is When I did the research, what I discovered is a subject that is timely, especially now, the book cism but is commemoration, which “asks readers to interesting. I just know how work-intensive writing quickly was that there’s not much of a story to tell was just so dense, too dense even for high school consider ideas within a book and to accept, reject, a nonfiction book will actually be, and that’s what about Anastasia. She wasn’t the engine of her own readers. And I don’t know how to make it less or modify the themes they find, thus encouraging my life will become, at least at the second-year destiny, so that makes a difference when it comes dense. I don’t know if I’ll ever figure it out. individual inquiry and critical thinking” (169). For mark of the research. But I have this master’s degree to telling her story. This happens to me a lot when instance, you show that Mary Todd Lincoln, who in American history, so every once in a while, I feel I do research; I always start with a very general TS: Have you ever thought about making it an is so often vilified as being unstable, wasteful, and the need to pull out all those wonderful skills that I idea of what I’m going to write, but I never solidify adult book? out of touch, is a complex and sympathetic figure. actually learned in school. it until I’m deep within the research process. As I How important is presenting the entire person and did the research, I realized that I was not writing a CF: I thought about it, but writing for adult readers challenging the conventional wisdom to you when TS: How do you go about choosing your topic or story about a sixteen-year-old girl, and I was not just is a different kind of work than writing for younger writing nonfiction about a historical figure? subject? writing a story about the Romanovs. I discovered I readers. Adult readers think they have it all figured was going to write a story about the revolution and out. CF: Now, kids can go and gather the facts online. CF: I’m not sure why subjects bite me, but they do. about the peasants, soldiers, and workers because They don’t need a bunch of facts about a certain And the ones that I choose are always the ones that they are a part of that story and they’re an ignored TS: One thing I admire about your work is that you person. For instance, they can go and find the major hang on. Even after I push the idea away, they come part of that story. have a talent for creating books that have a sense of dates and accomplishments in Abraham Lincoln’s back. I’ll go to the Art Institute, seriously, and all of suspense and that make their readers want to get to life. They don’t need me to do that. What I can a sudden all I see is the American West and Buffalo TS: Have you ever come across a subject or topic the next page to find out what happens. How im- do, as a nonfiction writer, is facilitate some critical Bill. He kept popping up everywhere, and I was that was nagging at you that you thought would be portant is narrative and story to you when you write thinking. To do this, I love to use the gray areas in like, “No, I’m not going to write about this. Nobody promising, but you decided that it just wasn’t right nonfiction, because it’s clear that you value these el- a person’s life. I don’t mean gray areas where we wants to read about the West anymore.” But I live for a young audience? ements and try to incorporate them in your writing? don’t know what happened in historical record or in Chicago, and you would not think that he would we’re re-examining what happened in the historical be a guy that turns up in this area, but he was here a CF: I wrote an entire book that was a biography CF: These things are very important. Even during record because we’ve made a new discovery. I’m long time. So I just had to write about him. of the First Amendment to the United States the research, I’m always looking for those details talking about those gray areas where you just don’t Constitution, which secures many freedoms seen that look like they can be used as conversation, de- quite know how to reconcile the concepts. For

BOOKBIRD 32 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 33 55.3–2017 “I’VE GOT A STORY YOU HAVEN’T HEARD”: CONVERSATION ABOUT THE ART AND CRAFT OF “I’VE GOT A STORY YOU HAVEN’T HEARD”: CONVERSATION ABOUT THE ART AND CRAFT OF NONFICTION WITH CANDACE FLEMING NONFICTION WITH CANDACE FLEMING instance, Benjamin Franklin was a slave owner. Tell things ever come into conflict? If so, how did you CF: My bottom line—and it’s going to sound easier WORKS CITED kids that and you can see them start to reassess. resolve it? than it is in reality—is that every one of my pieces of Carter, Betty. “Reviewing Biography.” The Horn Book, vol. Nicholas II was a great father to his children, but he 79, no. 2, 2003, pp. 165–174. nonfiction has what I call my “vital idea.” This isn’t was also called “Bloody Nicholas” by his subjects. CF: While narrative is important, first and foremost, my theme; it is more what I have to say about a par- SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CANDACE Even though the czar is the father of Russia, which the information in my books has to be accurate, so ticular topic. Why have I chosen to write this? What FLEMING’S NONFICTION WORKS FOR CHILDREN is what “czar” means, he was a bad father when I never make up anything. It’s unfair to call a book is it that I want to add to the conversation about a AND YOUNG ADULTS it came to his subjects, but a good father when it nonfiction if you’ve made up anything, like dialogue Fleming, Candace. Ben Franklin’s Almanac: Being a True subject that has already been written about numer- Account of the Good Gentleman’s Life. New York: came to his own children. or thoughts. I’ve got a master’s degree in history, so ous times, like the Romanovs or Amelia Earhart? Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003. Those are the areas that I want my readers to I’m definitely a purist when it comes to my non- What is it that I want to add? What is it that I have —. Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s think about. All life is gray area, everything we do is fiction. Anything that I use has to have good docu- to say? That’s what I consider my vital idea. Once Remarkable Life. New York: Atheneum Books for gray area. I purposely present this information be- mentation to it. This is why, when I say what color Young Readers, 2005. I determine it, anything that doesn’t speak to that —. The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and cause I want them to think about it; I want them to the carpet is in a scene, I can tell you what source I vital idea gets tossed. Mary. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2008. make their own choices. found that carpet color in. With the Romanovs, the vital idea was, “What —. The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, A lot of it has to do with moral choices as well, A time when finding this balance has happens when a leader is not responsive to his peo- Stupendous Life of Showman P. T. Barnum. New York: so I want my readers to think about morals too. come into my work is in The Romanovs. I know from Schwartz & Wade Books, 2009. ple?” Everything that goes into that book speaks to —. Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia What would they do in this situation? That is what the evidence that Nicholas II was chain-smoking that vital idea. The excessive wealth in a family that Earhart. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2011. my friend [and fellow non-fiction for young readers during particular scenes because he never was with- is so often isolated speaks to that idea. Hemophilia —. The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall author] Tonya Bolden calls “kicking it to the read- out a cigarette. I have a scene that I want to make it still speaks to that idea. All of the reasons for of Imperial Russia. New York: Schwartz & Wade er.” I’m not here to provide all the answers, but I sound like a story. My documents all say that he’s Books, 2014. Nicholas and the family not paying attention to —. Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the am here to present the evidence in a way that will there; they all even say he’s in his boots laying on what’s really going on around them speaks to that Wild West. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2016. make you reconsider it and make rethink what you the bed. But nowhere does anyone mention that he idea. Fleming, Candace, and Eric Rohmann. Giant Squid. New thought you knew about Lincoln or Amelia Earhart was smoking, and I thought, “Of course they don’t It can be painful; there are stories I’ve collected York: Roaring Brook Press, 2016. or the Romanovs. say this because he was always smoking.” I went and that I really love that simply don’t speak to back-and-forth on this detail. Nicholas II puffing what it is I’m trying to do with that book, and so TS: A recent Stanford University study on ado- on a cigarette is great storytelling, and it would be they have to be left behind. lescents’ ability to determine if the news they are this great detail that would make kids feel like they seeing is from a credible source has received a lot of were in the scene. I went ahead and let him smoke TS: What do you ultimately hope your readers get coverage lately, with research indicating that many through that scene because I knew he did. I could from the nonfiction texts you write? In an ideal have a hard time distinguishing between an ad la- pull out fifty sources that say he chain-smoked al- world, what are they going to do after reading about beled “sponsored content” and an actual news story. most until the day he died, even in captivity. I even Buffalo Bill or the Lincolns or the Romanovs? Your approach of giving readers all of the informa- know what he smoked. That’s where you weigh tion and letting them decide what to think and that balance carefully. CF: That’s easy. In an ideal world, they’re going helping them hone their critical thinking skills is so When it comes to the actual scenes, when I’m to go off and read something else related to that important, particularly in light of this. coming in close on the people, the balance is care- subject. They’re going to see if they can prove me ful. Everything I put in, I can actually refer back to wrong. I’d love them to prove me wrong; I want CF: Right, but they get frustrated with this. When the documentation. If I don’t have documentation them to be curious. I want them to think about that I go on author visits to schools, I hear from the stu- or if it isn’t something physical but I think I have subject in different ways. It really is about sparking dents that they are frustrated. They just want me a good sense of what the people thought, I’ll use some interest and sending readers on their way to to give them the answer. I tell them, “Sometimes, I “perhaps.” I give myself a rule that I can only use their own discoveries. can’t give you the answer. I don’t know for sure ei- “perhaps” a certain number of times, or I start to see ther, which is why I’m handing it to you. You make it too often. your choice – I made my choice based on the evi- dence, but I can’t tell you that I’m completely right. TS: You do an enormous amount of research for Tell me what you think and why.” your different subjects. You said you spend years with the subject, you go to the places they went TS: How do you find the balance between creating to, and you read the books that have been written a compelling narrative that will hook young readers about the subject. How do you decide what to keep and help get them to want to read and being and what can be left out when you are writing a historically and factually accurate? Have these two nonfiction text?

BOOKBIRD 34 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 35 55.3–2017 Children & THE NORDIC HOUSE IN REYKJAVÍK, ICELAND: A HOUSE WITH A BIG HEART FOR Their Books CHILDREN AND LITERATURE

Photo: Mats Wibe Lund Photo: Mats Wibe urrounded by sea on three sides and house is as vibrant, varied, and international as the guarded by the majestic mountain range city itself. Esja, the city of Reykjavík is a capital in The Nordic House, built in 1968, is a cultural The Nordic House in a rather non-metropolitan way. Small in institution designed by acclaimed Finnish architect scale and with a pond frequented by Arc- Alvar Aalto (1898–1976). Visitors from all over the Stic birds for a central square, the city gets its capital world find their way to the Nordic House to admire Reykjavík, Iceland: allure from the international vibe of its numerous this distinctive representative of Aalto’s architec- events and the variety of cultural festivals it hosts. ture. It features typical motifs that can be found in One of the venues taking a leading role in the city’s Aalto’s well-known masterpieces. Due to the use of A House with a Big Heart for richness of activities is the Nordic House, situated organic shapes and natural materials, such as bend- in the nature reserve across the road from the city ed wood and copper combined with tile and brick, Children and Literature center. The same modest size as Reykjavík, the the building is in harmony with its environment

Marloes Robijn

BOOKBIRD 36 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 37 55.3–2017 THE NORDIC HOUSE IN REYKJAVÍK, ICELAND: A HOUSE WITH A BIG HEART FOR THE NORDIC HOUSE IN REYKJAVÍK, ICELAND: A HOUSE WITH A BIG HEART FOR CHILDREN AND LITERATURE CHILDREN AND LITERATURE and function. The blue rooftop merges with the follows: In the morning, a school class gets a guided pices of the Nordic Council of Ministers, following thology, was presented and there was a seminar on mountain range to the south, and the brightness, tour through the house, while a seminar on Nordic its strategy for Nordic cultural co-operation. One how young readers can reflect themselves in animal transparency, and warmth of the interior reflect the environmental issues is opened by the President of of the current strategy’s five main topics focuses on protagonists in the picturebooks of Hanne Bartholin objective of the Nordic House. Iceland. Later, the auditorium might be used for a children and young people. In addition, children (DK), Linda Ólafsdóttir (IS) and Anthony Browne The institution was the first of its kind and is film screening or children’s theatre, while tourists and youth are a priority target group within the (UK). operated by the Nordic Council of Ministers—an and locals visit the exhibitions, the restaurant, or overall strategy of the Nordic Council. Based on In the panels “Young Adults and Self-Image” intergovernmental body with representatives from the gift shop. People drop in at the library to study, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and “Writing Books about Minorities and Outsid- Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden borrow books, or enjoy the architecture. In the the Council of Ministers seeks to respect, protect, ers,” the participating authors Hildur Knútsdóttir as well as Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Åland. children’s library, children are playing, reading, and and promote the rights and perspectives of children (IS), Lawrence Schimel (USA), Salla Simukka (FI), The goal of the Nordic House, which is to foster discovering books in familiar or new languages. In and young people—creating a society that provides Kätlin Kaldmaa (EE), and Kenneth Bøgh Andersen and support cultural connections between Iceland the evening, you might see guests sipping from a opportunities for them to participate, exercise their (DK) took a clear stand in the question about what and the other Nordic countries, is manifested in a glass of wine during a literature night with a Nordic rights, and let their voices be heard. is normal and what is different. Are characters in diverse program of cultural activities and events. writer, or the auditorium could be filled with long- Besides the children’s library, the Nordic Coun- children’s books getting more diverse? Do we have haired youngsters at a concert with Norwegian cil’s strategy is visible in a broad variety of activities different expectations when the main character is A Focus on Children and Young People medieval instruments or young people of all ages for children throughout the year. Moreover, the Nor- a girl? Are we—readers, publishers, and writers—as In the heart of the house, with its high ceiling and enjoying Danish hip-hop. The Nordic House dic House hosts a biannual international children’s open-minded as we think when it comes to minori- fan-shaped book well, is the library, which has participates in the major festivals held in Reykjavík literature festival and is the administrative office of ty protagonists and the themes connected to these books and media in all the Scandinavian languages and produces its own exhibitions, festivals, and the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s characters? The discussions, which evoked active along with Sami, Greenlandic, and Finnish. Further- events—covering a broad spectrum of topics, with Literature Prize. participation of the audience, felt relevant, in-depth, more, the house contains an art lending section, an a focus on sustainability, children and youth, and and far from concluded. auditorium, exhibition spaces, and a cozy children’s literature. Mýrin International Children’s Another highlight of the festival was the large library and playing area, where storytelling hours in Today, the Nordic House has sister organiza- Literature Festival amount of school classes who invaded the Nordic Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish take place. tions in the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Åland, and As a UNESCO City of Literature, Reykjavík offers House. Around four hundred children in the ages On a regular day, activities can be as varied as Finland. All five institutions work under the aus- several literature festivals and numerous literary between five and fifteen attended readings by au- activities for adults and children alike. The Nordic thors such as Gunnar Theódór Eggertsson (IS), Photo: Mats Wibe Lund Photo: Mats Wibe House takes part in the Children’s Culture Festival Martin Widmark (SE), Gerður Kristný (IS), and and hosts the biannual Reykjavík International Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir (IS) and participated in Literary Festival and the Mýrin International workshops in creative writing, illustration, and draw- Children’s Literature Festival. The latter has been ing. Children invented their own comic character held every other year since 2001, organized by the with Mari Ahokoivu (FI), and together with Pernilla Reykjavík City Library, IBBY Iceland, The Writers’ Stalfelt (SE), they made up a hilarious cartoon about Union of Iceland, the Association of Children’s a hungry creature with a volcanic hat while Per- Book Writers in Iceland (SÍUNG), the University of nilla taught them rules and techniques for drawing Iceland, and the Nordic House. The festival always comic strips. For teenagers, there was a workshop hosts an academic program for professionals and in writing rap lyrics and rhyming, led by Arnar Már children’s literature lovers and offers an extensive Arngrímsson (IS). program for children, with readings, exhibitions, and On the closing day of the festival, a large group a variety of workshops. Every edition, the festival of six- to ten-year-olds made up an anti-hero with has a special theme that refers to the moorland lots of unpractical special powers together with TV (Mýrin) in which the Nordic House is situated. scientist and writer Ævar Þór Benediktsson (IS), The 2016 edition of the festival, which took after which they tried their own special powers in a place from 6 to 9 October and was simply called magical scientific experiment. At the same time, an In the Moorland, dealt with the theme Self-Image honorary program dedicated to the beloved Icelan- – World-Image. During the symposium, several top- dic children’s book writer Guðrún Helgadóttir took ics within this theme were addressed, such as the place, attracting fans of all ages. influence of Nordic myths on self-image in Nordic During the festival, the exhibition Into the Wind! YA-literature or the role of maps in our perception was on display, a collection of artworks of seven- of the world in books. The interactive app-novel teen children’s book illustrators from all the Nordic NORD, a story about climate change and Norse my- countries and regions. The exhibition is produced

BOOKBIRD 38 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 39 55.3–2017 THE NORDIC HOUSE IN REYKJAVÍK, ICELAND: A HOUSE WITH A BIG HEART FOR THE NORDIC HOUSE IN REYKJAVÍK, ICELAND: A HOUSE WITH A BIG HEART FOR CHILDREN AND LITERATURE CHILDREN AND LITERATURE Photo: Áslaug Jónsdóttir apa [The Murderer’s Ape]. WORKS CITED In November 2016, Icelandic writer Arnar Már CHILDREN’S BOOKS Arngrímsson won the prize for his book Sölvasaga Arnar Már Arngrímsson. Sölvasaga unglings. Reykjavík: [Sölvi, the tale of a young person], a book Sögur, 2015. unglings Vuorela, Seita and Jani Ikonen (ill.). Karikko. Helsinki: about a teenager who is sent to his grandmother in WSOY, 2012. the countryside where he doesn’t have access to his Wegelius, Jakob. Mördarens apa. Stockholm: Bonnier phone or computer. Sölvi secretly writes rap lyrics Carlsen, 2015. and struggles with the difficulties of being an ado- Øvreås, Håkon and Øyvind Torseter (ill.). Brune. Oslo: Gyldendal, 2013. lescent. In the jury report, the Adjudication Com- SECONDARY SOURCES mittee writes that Arnar Már Arngrímsson “manag- Helgason, Haraldur, Málfríður Kristjánsdóttir, and Pétur H. es to convey the story in a way that is sincere and Ármannsson (eds.). The Nordic House: Alvar Aalto: loyal to the young people in .” Iceland. Reykjavík: Norræna húsið, 1999. Sölvasaga unglings Nordic Council of Ministers. Children and Young People Photo: Áslaug Jónsdóttir in the Nordic Region – a cross-sectoral strategy for [He] succeeds in creating a person who is the Nordic Council of Ministers 2016-2022. at once interesting, entertaining, annoy- Copenhagen: Nordisk Ministerråd, 2016. ing, searching, and fascinating. Cultures “Winner of the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2016.” collide in the language of the narrative …. The reader follows the protagonist through INTERNET stormy existential crises, which portray just Homepage of the Nordic House: www.nordichouse.is how difficult it is to navigate puberty with- Homepage of the Mýrin International Children’s Literature Festival: www.myrin.is out running aground. (from the jury report) An account of the Mýrin festival in drawings by visual art students: #myrinfestival on Instagram The nominees for 2017 were announced during the The Adjudication Committee report 2016 and the 12 Bologna Book Fair in April and the winner will be nominations for the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize 2017 (date accessed announced at the Nordic Council prize ceremony 07/07/2017): http://www.norden.org/en/nordic- by the Berlin-based organization kulturkind in col- of Culture’s wish to recognize outstanding works on 1 November in Helsinki. Short descriptions of council/nordic-council-prizes laboration with the Nordic House and will be trav- of high literary and artistic quality for children and the twelve nominated books can be found on the eling through Europe until 2018. The festival also young adults and to promote those works in the website of the Nordic Council. brought in many new illustrations by students of whole Nordic region. An Adjudication Committee In 2018, the Nordic House will celebrate its the Illustration Program of the Reykjavík School of of experts from all the Nordic countries nominates fiftieth anniversary. The first children who visited Visual Arts, who made apt visual reports of the sem- the best new prose, poetry, or drama written for the house in 1968 might be visiting it with their inars and children’s activities, which they posted on children and young people in one of the Scandi- grandchildren today. And while the area around the festival’s Instagram account (see link below). navian languages (i.e. Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, the house is slowly filled with new buildings, the Norwegian, and Swedish) as well as Finnish, Green- Nordic House can still see its mirror in the lake. A The Nordic Council Children and landic, and Sami). Every year, two works from each sustained realization of Nordic co-operation, with a Young People’s Literature Prize Nordic country are nominated and, additionally, big heart for children and literature. Two of the guests of the Mýrin literature festival, one work in Faroese, one in Greenlandic, one in Ragnhildur Hólmgeirsdóttir and Arnar Már Arn- Sami, and one from Åland may be nominated. The grímsson, were the two Icelandic nominees for the Adjudication Committee then chooses the winner, Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Lit- who is awarded 350,000 DKK (approximately erature Prize 2016. Every year, the Nordic Council 47,000 EUR) during the annual session of the Nor- awards five prizes, the Literature Prize, the Music dic Council. Prize, the Environment Prize, the Film Prize, and The first winners of the prize are author Seita MARLOES ROBIJN (1985) works as project assistant at the Children and Young People’s Literature Prize— Vuorela and illustrator Jani Ikonen from Finland for the Nordic House in Reykjavík. She studied Scandinavian all of which are considered to be amongst the most the book Karikko [The Reef], followed by Norwe- (children’s) literature and clinical linguistics in the Nether- lands and Sweden. Ever since she read The Brothers prestigious prizes in the Nordic region. gian writer Håkon Øvreås and illustrator Øyvind Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren as a child, she has had a The Children and Young People’s Literature Torseter in 2014 for their book Brune [Brown]. In big passion for children’s books. Knowing how much the Prize is the newest of the prizes. It has been award- 2015, Jakob Wegelius from Sweden was awarded books of her childhood have shaped her, she is passionate ed since 2013, as a result of the Nordic Ministers the prize for the richly illustrated novel Mördarens about bringing children and books together.

BOOKBIRD 40 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 41 55.3–2017 Review THREE TIMES IN WONDERLAND essay the different methodological apparati, theoretical the original text) and an ardent desire to disseminate frameworks, cultural backgrounds, and languages his story (hence his insistence on having it translat- used to discover untraveled pathways into the famil- ed). iarly strange Carrollian textual territory. The progression of Jaques and Giddens’ book is Zoe Jaques and Eugene Giddens’ Lewis Carroll’s chronological: the first chapter deals with the initial Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass: A evolution of the story covering the period from 1862 Three Times in Publishing History (2013) was published in the year to 1875, the second traces the impact of the Alice preceding the sesquicentennial anniversary of the novels and its early adaptations on Victorian audi- publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as an ences, the third discusses the canonical sedimenta- early bird at the dawn of worldwide celebrations, tion of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a children’s and remains a definite reference point for readers classic between 1890 and 1907, and the fourth and Wonderland interested in the adventurous publishing history of fifth follow the textual and non-textual afterlives of the Alice tales. An overview of the classic’s trans- Alice up until the present day. Jaques and Giddens formation from improvised oral narrative to gift-book smartly promote their study by insisting on the pos- Anna Kerchy manuscript to print, illustration, theatrical play, game, sibility of its episodic reading; readers with particular collectible, television, and cinema is particularly in- interests might browse through the work and read teresting for twenty-first century readers. Those different chapters isolated from one another without readers are likely to be familiarized with the figure losing the thread of the argumentation. The first of Alice through transmedia storytelling, whereby three chapters offer a thoroughly researched pan- integral elements of Wonderland’s fictional universe oramic overview of “the full and surprising journey are so intricately dispersed across multiple delivery Alice has taken from its inception to the present day.” channels (each making a unique, original contribu- Besides twists and turns familiar from seminal works tion to a coordinated entertainment experience) that as Williams and Madan’s Lewis Carroll Handbook, it becomes tremendously difficult to tell the original Cohen and Gandolfo’s Lewis Carroll and the House apart from its manifold adaptations. of Macmillan, and other important scholarship pro- Jaques and Giddens indeed understand pub- duced by the Lewis Carroll Society that Jaques and lishing history in a broad sense in accordance with Giddens admittedly rely on throughout mapping the McKenzie’s notion of the sociology of texts, aiming journey of Alice, readers may indeed be surprised by to trace the cultural-history of “verbal, visual, oral, a few new episodes complementing the well-known and numeric data’s” transmissions, modifications, genesis story—for instance, the discussion of how and repurposings in different eras, locations, and in- Alice’s authorized and unauthorized copies got pub- Virginie Iché. L’esthétique du jeu Celia Brown. Alice Hinter den Zoe Jaques and Eugene terpretive communities. Hence, as the introduction lished with different illustrations for the US market. dans les Alice de Lewis Carroll. Mythen. Der Sinn in Carroll’s Giddens. Lewis Carroll’s Alice points out, the book is concerned not just with the The last chapter, entitled “Alice Beyond the Préface de Jean-Jacques Nonsens. Verlag Wilhelm Fink, in Wonderland and Through cultural objects we call “Alices” but with “the stories Page,” covers a wide range of high and low cultural Lecercle, Paris: L’Harmattan, coll. 2015. p. 240. the Looking-Glass: A Publishing surrounding their creation and use.” adaptations for adults and children alike, from the ‘Critiques littéraires’, 2015. ISBN: 978-3-7705-5858-2 History. Farnham: Ashgate, p. 254. ISBN: 978-2-343-07927-1 2013. p. 263. The study relies on documentary evidence, in- earliest cinematic takes to Alice in music videos. cluding Carroll’s letters and diaries as well as pre- Alas, this section remains more descriptive than ar- viously published research, to demonstrate Carroll’s gumentative and strangely fails to refer to any semi- othing proves more the challeng- fantasies about Alice’s adventures in Wonderland ambiguous attitude to authorship and the authority nal theoretical frameworks which could prevent the ing complexity of an artwork than and beyond the Looking Glass. The scholars weigh- over his fictional universe. His rigorous control over authors from making simplistic statements like call- a choir of synchronic critical voices ing in the postmillennial discussion of this irresist- the publishing, printing, illustration, and marketing ing the Royal Ballet’s Alice an uninteresting take on which propose in parallel with each ibly curious textual corpus are all specialists of nine- process (illustrated by his recalling the first print run the novelistic original. Theoretically minded read- other inventive, new interpretations teenth-century and children’s literature who fuse because of his dissatisfaction with the poor paper ers will miss references to Linda Hutcheon’s theory Nof a widely-read canonized classic some hundred their philological skills with exciting research agen- quality of Wonderland’s initial sheets) was coupled of adaptation, to Benjamin Lefebvre’s insights on and fifty years after its original publication. My re- das—such as the sociology of texts and publication with his recognition of the inherent flexibility of his textual transformations in children’s literature, or to view essay outlines a transnational, comparative in- history (Jaques and Giddens), ludology combined episodic dream-stories which constituted “unusually Henry Jenkins’ research on new media literacies, or terface of three recent academic studies published with reception theory and the post-semiotics of sub- fruitful sources for reappropriating” (an extraordinary even (in the unjustly denigrated ballet adaptation’s between 2013 and 2015, all targeting creative reread- jectivity (Iché), or the study of antiquity (Brown). A adaptogenic quality he exploited in two adaptations case) to critical dance studies scholarship. However, ings of Lewis Carroll’s Victorian nonsense fairy-tale carnivalesque proliferation of meanings results from and abundant meta-textual commentary he added to this is a must-read for readers looking for a concise

BOOKBIRD 42 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 43 55.3–2017 THREE TIMES IN WONDERLAND THREE TIMES IN WONDERLAND

overview of the intricate textual metamorphosis from adoxical process of how the playing reader is also textualizations of the oeuvre. In seventeen essays, easily convinced that the White Queen’s believing the initial to the latest retellings for the young and played at (lecteur joué/jouant) but can nevertheless em- she unveils the contemporary themes, cultural allu- herself an incredible age should be interpreted as a the old and from paratexts to tie-in products. bark on a “counter-signification” process and “count- sions, and mythological references Carroll had wo- symptom of opiate use as recounted by Thomas De Virginie Iché’s L’esthétique du jeu dans les Alice er-interpellate” the text interpellating him/her in an ven in his novels. Quincey. de Lewis Carroll (The Aesthetics of Play in Lewis Althusserian sense. Some of the chapters—which read Alice alternate- The structure of Brown’s book is kaleidoscopic: Carroll’s Alice, 2015) treads in the footsteps of One of the remarkable feats of Iché’s text is the ly as a historical document of Victorian technologi- her extensive list of briefly outlined and occasional- Katherine Blake’s seminal book Play, Games, and Sport. combination of a meticulous rhetorical close reading cal and intellectual advances and as a manifesto of ly fragmentary ideas about possible intertextual al- The Literary Works of Lewis Carroll (1974) by locating in of treacherous signifiers with the macroperspectivism the author’s love of arts or of his child worship—do lusions do not constitute a coherent argumentation the focus of her research the aesthetics of play in the of ideology-critical analysis of the social constitution not make any unprecedented claims. Elsewhere, but work more like annotations to the well-known Alice tales. However, besides extending the list of of subjectivity. With a genuine Carrollian pun in the Brown boldly risks getting lost amidst an abun- Alice tales—fleeting visionary glimpses which might games Blake enumerates as essential in constituting final chapter, “Du Jeu au Je,” Iché suggests how the dance of crisscrossing pathways she ventures on to provide inspiration for more in depth investigations. the nonsensical spirit of Wonderland’s fictional uni- playing of games evolves into the de/construction of solve Wonderland’s riddle. Her introduction cata- This quick succession of ideas with subtitles on verse, Iché regards games and plays as major struc- identities. Throughout the dialectics of the textual logues about a dozen interpretive strategies she used nearly every page borders on the vertiginous but also tural organizing principles of the Carrollian narrative game, via an alteration of freedom and restraint, rules throughout her journey through the Alice books— fulfils a postmodernist research agenda, strategically which invite fundamentally ludic interpretive strate- both enable and delimit ludic agency for the im- including psychoanalytical, satirical, classical, sci- rejecting the fixation of ultimate final meanings with gies from its ideal (i.e., playful) readers. Besides the plied model reader and the actual “impostor” reader entific, spiritualist, drug-induced, moral, Darwinian, the activation of a dynamic free flow of ideas. On card and chess games providing logical frames to the alike, initiating the paradoxical experience of being a mathematical, sectarian, and esoteric readings. the whole, Brown’s book of associative snippets, com- two Alice novels and memorable episodes including player and a plaything—like Alice, a chess pawn and However, Brown’s knowledgeable untangling of plemented by a glossary of John Camden Hotten’s the caucus race, the lobster quadrille, or the Queen’s girl adventurer—in one. However, this understand- Alice’s intricate web of allusions does contain genuine- London street slang dictionary and a selection of her croquet game illustrating the illogical functioning of ing of the literary interpretation grounded in play’s ly innovative insights. She demonstrates how topics Alice-inspired drawings, is delightful like a box of pra- the make-believe realm, Iché calls attention to an constructive and defensive role for the reading sub- of general interest for nineteenth century audiences lines, promising a surprising new flavor with each bite. impressive range of games from the kitten’s game of ject—a method Iché elaborates by relying on Michel were interlaced with tales from antiquity, mystical Certainly, the feat is not over yet to Alice aficio- romps with the ball of worsted to the origami featur- Picard’s seminal book La lecture comme jeu—can be ap- matters, and alchemical magic, reflecting Carroll’s nado’s greatest contentment. The past years saw the ing on a Tenniel illustration; most importantly, she plied as a general model to decipher the formation proximity to the hub of Greek scholarship in Oxford publication of important works like Gillian Beer’s studies games on diegetic, narratological, stylistic, of the speaking subject as a paradoxical process that as well as his interest in his times’ Egyptomania and Alice in Space: The Sideways Victorian World of Lewis and linguistic levels—scrutinizing language games, both implies subjection (i.e., reduction to a “subject Orientalist fantasies, hermeticist esoteric thought, Carroll (2016), Edward Wakeling’s Lewis Carroll: The wordplay, puns, neologisms, riddles, and intertextual in speech”, a “spoken subject”) and entails a liberat- and paranormal phenomena, too. Brown’s associative Man and his Circle (2015), and an Alice-themed dou- allusions abundant in the literary nonsense genre. ing subjectification for reader, character, and author logic relates the Caterpillar advising Alice to Thoth, ble special issue of the Croatian journal of research Iché’s theoretically informed analysis pays special alike. the Egyptian God of knowledge, the arts of magic, on children’s literature and culture Libri & Liberi attention to the role attributed to the reader, who is Iché’s book is based on her doctoral disserta- and the judgment of the dead; in her view, the White (2015). And there is still more to the contents of the meant to oscillate in the game-space between spon- tion defended at University Paris 10 under the su- Rabbit plays Hermes, and the Mouse represents Carrollian Drink Me! bottle than one could imagine… taneous, instinctive free play and rule-bound, disci- pervision of Jean-Jacques Lecercle, the author of Giordano Bruno. The nonsensical reasoning of the plined game. Iché elaborates on a series of comple- seminal works including Philosophy of Nonsense (1994) frog footman recalls the Brekekekèx-koàx-koáx dis- mentary notions such as Roger Caillois’s paidia and and The Force of Language (2004). Iché, a disciple of pute in Aristophanes’ comedy The Frogs; the Mock ludus, Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnivalesque subversion the Lecerclian school, is well-versed in theory, yet Turtle is a tongue in cheek reference to the meta- and ideological containment, or Colas Duflo’s légal- her study (shortlisted for the 2016 SAES/AFEA re- morphic Tortoise in Apuleius’s Golden Ass; the look- iberté conjoining lawfulness and liberty via a freedom search prize) is also highly enjoyable for newcomers ing glass mirrors Elizabethan astronomer-alchemist in and made possible by legality. She argues that the to language philosophy or Carroll studies. John Dee’s crystal ball used for occult divination and essence of literary nonsense resides in its play with Celia Brown’s interest in Wonderland is truly conversing with angels; and Humpty Dumpty’s big expectations: readers believe in order to gain agency multimedial: Besides her book Alice Hinter den Mythen. word “impenetrability” is traced back to proto-scien- by filling in textual gaps caused by the disruptions Der Sinn in Carroll’s Nonsens (Alice Behind the Myth: tific ideas of Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum. Brown’s of common sense, but eventually they must realize The meaning in Carroll’s Nonsens, 2015), illustrat- storehouse of new readings is thought-provoking, but that the blanks do not allow for an unrestrained, ed with her pen drawings, she presented several solo some of her speculations are confusing: Alice’s iden- creative free flow of meanings; rather, they prove exhibitions of visual arts and lecture performances tity crisis evokes the “myriad named” goddess Isis, to be intertextual echoes, sites of the “already said” related to the Alice theme (Alice im Spiegelland, Soirée but the Duchess’s elaborate headdress also recalls which has been erased. Inspired by Wolfgang Iser’s zu Alice Freiburg, 2007, 2011). Brown’s demythologiz- Isis with baby Horus in her lap, while the Cheshire ANNA KERCHY is an associate professor of literature and Umberto Eco’s reception theory—contrasting ing project, Alice Hinter den Mythen, aims to decode the Cat is not only identified with Abraham Lincoln in the English department of the University of Szeged, Hungary. She authored Alice in Transmedia Wonderland: their different understanding of textual gaps, taking puzzling Carrollian nonsense and attribute meaning but also the ghost of Pentheus, and a maenad of Curiouser and Curiouser New Forms of a Children’s sides with Eco’s—Iché convincingly unveils the par- to apparent meaninglessness through manifold con- Dionysian mysteries, too. Readers might not be so Classic (McFarland, 2016).

BOOKBIRD 44 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 45 55.3–2017 PERCEPTION AND RECEPTION OF NONFICTION FOR CHILDREN Letters AND YOUTH IN SLOVENIA

share of nonfiction in the annual production for chil- as the Head of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. dren and youth was only 13 percent; further, only 17 The production of 2015, planned and executed af- percent of all nonfiction received a recommendation, ter the message of the expert seminars on nonfiction Perception and Reception and the Golden Pear Award in category best origi- had been delivered, brought further positive chang- nal nonfiction for children and youth could not be es. The share of nonfiction titles in the set of all titles awarded that year. This alarming state was not a con- published for children and youth rose to 19 percent, of Nonfction for Children sequence of the lack of original nonfiction material. partly because some smaller publishing houses took In 2013, many educational books were published that advantage of increased public interest and intro- could not be replaced by translated best-sellers, but duced quality nonfiction titles into their programs. and Youth in Slovenia most as half-finished products. Either expert writers More importantly, the publishing houses dedicated decided to self-publish or publish at academic pub- more time and means to nonfiction: an increased lishing houses with no experience in publication for investment in editorial work lead to 68 percent of children and youth or the books were published by all non-fiction titles receiving a recommendation. In Tina Bilban one of the main publishing houses which failed to original nonfiction, 18 percent of all titles received invest sufficiently in editorial work and illustrations. the Golden Pear and 79 percent a recommenda- Pionirska, the main force behind the Manual, tion. Faced with an exceptional production of origi- decided to intervene and address the stakeholders nal nonfiction in 2015, the expert committee of the in the nonfiction for children and youth production Manual awarded two Golden Pears in the category of with a set of monthly expert seminars in 2014. In best original nonfiction for children and youth. One the seminars, experts, from science promoters to went to Danijel otar’s Ptije kvatre [Bird’s Seasons]—a psychologist, presented the importance of nonfic- book of short stories on birds, their natural habitats, tion—which encourages children to perceive the and their cohabitation with people—written by a world from another perspective, offers background member of the Slovenian minority in Italy. The sec- for their imagination, and sparks interest in science. ond went to a selection of short stories on science It was emphasized that many less diligent readers written by probably the best-known Slovenian pro- prefer reading nonfiction to fiction; therefore, the moter of science, Dr. Sašo Dolenc, and is titled Od n Slovenia, the publishing of high-quality fic- ter for youth literature and librarianship, Ljubljana promotion of quality nonfiction can maintain their genov do zvezd [From Genes to Stars]; it was carefully tion for children and youth has traditionally City Library. Today the assessment, titled Prironik positive attitude towards books. Media coverage of designed and enriched by extremely talkative and been considered crucial for national culture. In za branje kakovostnih mladinskih knjig [Manual for read- these expert seminars mediated the expert appeal to humorous illustrations of one of the best Slovenian contrast, nonfiction for children and youth has ing quality youth literature, the Manual for short], in- the lay public. The improved media coverage and young illustrators, Igor Šinkovec. The book was ad- not been admitted the same importance and cludes a list of all books for children and youth pub- public interest in nonfiction lead publishing houses vertised as a potential best-seller, various promotions Ihas been, after introduction of capitalist economy, lished in Slovenia in the past year, with grades from 1 to the perceived promise of better sales figures, while were organized, and extremely good media coverage completely subjected to the open market. Publishers (very low quality) to 5 (excellent). Books with grades expert analysis of the current situation pointed out was achieved. According to sales numbers provided have avoided original nonfiction as it is expensive to 4 or 5 are annotated, and the latter are also visually the existence of proficient authors willing to write by Mladinska knjiga publishing house in 2016, the produce and considered difficult to sell (readers have promoted with a Zlata hruška (Golden Pear) mark. about their field of expertise for children and youth. number of copies of From Genes to Stars matched the moved to other media, such as educational television The Golden Pear has become recognized as a sym- The expert committee of the Manual observed some sale numbers for the top 20 best-selling titles for programs and the internet). With little public interest bol of quality, and the Golden Pear stickers guide positive changes in quality—but not yet in quanti- youth in the past five years. Such sale numbers have in nonfiction for children and youth, its unfortunate visitors in most Slovenian libraries and bookstores ty—of the nonfiction works produced in2014, with only rarely been accomplished by Slovenian authors state would have gone unnoticed if not for systematic towards high-quality literature. In 2012, the expert 34 percent nonfiction titles receiving a recommen- of fiction and never by a nonfiction title. expert assessment of children and youth literature. committee established the Golden Pear Award in dation. Among original non-fiction titles, eight were It seems that, at least in the short-term, the expert The systematic assessment of children’s and three categories: best original fiction, best translated excellent and the Golden Pear Award in the catego- intervention nudged some of the stakeholders in the youth literature in Slovenia started with the establish- fiction (awarded jointly with the Slovenian section of ry of best original nonfiction for children and youth publishing industry towards quality nonfiction books. ment of the first Slovenian children and youth litera- IBBY), and best original nonfiction for children and went to Huiqin Wang’s picturebook Ferdinand Avguštin The message that high-quality original nonfiction is ture journals—Otrok in knjiga [Child and book] in 1972 youth. The Golden Pear is the first literary award for Hallerstein – Slovenec v prepovedanem mestu [Ferdinand good for young readers, that it can be interesting for and Šolska knjižnica [School library] in 1991—which nonfiction for children and youth in Slovenia. Avguštin Hallerstein – a Slovenian in the Forbidden potential buyers, and that it can be produced when published recommendations, assessments, and re- Since its establishment, The Manual has served as City]—a story written by a Chinese author living in the existing potential of authors and experts is actu- views of selected titles. Since 1998, an independent a catalyst for expert evaluation of nonfiction for chil- Slovenia about a famous Slovenian missionary, scien- alized with help from editors and publishers seems systematic assessment has been made annually by an dren and youth, which lead to the observation of its tist, and diplomat from the eighteenth century who to have hit fertile grounds. expert committee gathered around Pionirska, cen- alarming decline in quality and quantity. In 2013, the spent thirty-five years at the imperial court in China

BOOKBIRD 46 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 47 55.3–2017 PERCEPTION AND RECEPTION OF NONFICTION FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN SLOVENIA Letters

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I would like to thank Rok Gregorin and Mladinska knjiga for the information on sales numbers. Interview WINNERS OF THE GOLDEN PEAR AWARD IN THE CATEGORY BEST ORIGINAL NONFICTION FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH 2010: Miro Cerar. Kako sem otrokom razložil demokraci- with Nizar Ali Badr jo [How I Explained Democracy to Children]. Illustrated by Izar Lunaček. Edited by Zdravko Duša. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 2009. 2011: Živa Deu in Bara Kolenc. Kje pa ti živiš? [Where Do Margriet Ruurs You Live?]. Illustrated by Damijan Stepančič. Edited by Petra Frölich. Ljubljana: Rokus Klett, 2010. 2012: Lucija Stepančič and Damijan Stepančič. Kako so videli svet [How Did They See the World]. Illustrated by Damijan Stepančič. Edited by Gaja Kos. Dob pri Domžalah: Miš, 2011. 2013: Lučka Kajfež Bogataj. Vroči novi svet [Hot New World]. Illustrated by Izar Lunaček. Edited by Zdravko Duša. Ljubljana, Cankarjeva založba, 2012. 2014: / 2015: Huiqin Wang. Ferdinand Avguštin Hallerstein - Slovenec v prepovedanem mestu [Ferdinand Avguštin Hallerstein – a Slovenian in the Forbidden City]. Illustrated by Huiqin Wang. Edited by Irena Matko Lukan. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2014. 2016: Čotar, Danijel. Ptičje kvatre [Birds’ Seasons]. Illustrated by Matej Sušič. Edited by Marija Češčut. Gorica: Goriška Mohorjeva in Celjska Mohorjeva, 2015. Dolenc, Sašo. Od genov do zvezd [From Genes to Stars]. Illustrated by Igor Šinkovec. Edited by Ana Ugronivić. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 2015.

Dr TINA BILBAN (1983) is a research assistant at Institute Nova Revija, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her interests and pub- lications encompass the crossroads between continental philosophy, science and literature with focus on literature for children and youth. She is a member of the expert committee of the Manual for reading quality youth liter- ature (published by Pionirska, center for youth literature and librarianship, Ljubljana city Library), a national institu- tion that assesses each year’s entire production of children and youth literature.

BOOKBIRD 48 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 49 55.3–2017 INTERVIEW WITH NIZAR ALI BADR INTERVIEW WITH NIZAR ALI BADR

Nizar Ali Badr works on a rocky beach near his speaks Arabic. I didn’t even know if he still lived and I want to share the same message with children home in Lattakia, Syria. He bends down to gather there or had left his country. A teacher in Austra- around the world. Nizar says, “My human message smooth pebbles to use in his art. He says “I am a Syr- lia translated my request for me. Finally, after three is the spreading of happiness and love. Through my ian sculptor from Ugarit; my ancestors left a signature months of trying to make contact, I enlisted the help creations, one can hear the stones saying, ‘Stop kill- in my genes to create and share my work with hones- of an IBBY friend in Pakistan. Syeda Basarat Kaz- ing human beings. Stop destruction. Do not abandon ty and modesty.” Nizar’s art is striking and unusual. im miraculously managed to contact Nizar. Nizar’s your humanity!’” Arranging rocks on the ground or on a rectangle of friend Saji, also living in Lattakia, translated my Having grown up shortly after WWII in The plywood, he creates images that touch the heart. emails, acting as go-between, making our coopera- Netherlands, I am familiar with stories of falling When I first spotted his art on Facebook, I was struck tion possible. bombs, of house raids and men being taken away from by the fact that the image showed deep emotion, yet Did Nizar still have photos of his art? Were they their families. I have heard my parents talk about rel- it was simply made of rocks. How did he do that? of a high enough resolution for a book? The two atives who never came back, about war and hunger. Intrigued, I looked at his Facebook page and found men in Syria and I, at home on Canada’s west coast, The images today on the evening news of what is many more images. As the author of over thirty would “meet” late at night for “a cup of tea” and chat happening in Syria are echoes of what happened in books for children, I felt strongly that his art needed about making a book. Nizar was excited. But he add- Holland so long ago, of what happened in Vietnam, to be shared in a picturebook. I had never seen rocks ed, “Glue has become far too expensive nowadays, in Afghanistan, and of what will happen elsewhere used as art media in a children’s book. When I put so each time I create a stone sculpture, I have to in the future. By showing children that all people several of his images in a row, I felt that they told a destroy it.” He compares his art to that of Buddhist want is to live safely in peace—regardless of race, re- story—A story of love, of war, of peace, of despair, sand mandalas—neither is permanent. Once I found ligion, or culture—perhaps one day we can. As John and of hope. I wrote the words that I felt conveyed Orca Book Publishers keen to produce this book, Lennon said, “Imagine!” his message. Nizar shared photos of his art, sometimes recreating Despite living in a war torn country and in Then I needed his permission to use his art in images that needed to be photographed in a higher poverty, Nizar Ali Badr is happy that his art is a re- a book. I tried contacting him but to no avail. Nizar resolution. flection of hope and peace to many. He says, “Al- lives in war-torn Syria without electricity and only Even though we have never met, Nizar Ali Badr though I am living in great poverty as a result of the Margriet Ruurs is the award winning author of over 30 war, I am a wealthy man, rich of my artistic creations.” books for children. She has a Master of Education degree and conducts author visits and writing workshops at international schools around the world. Her home is a With thanks to Creative Havens Syrian Artists. booklovers’ B & B on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada.

BOOKBIRD 50 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 51 55.3–2017 Julian Clary, known as one of the U.K.’s most endearing comedians, has recently published a series of delightful children’s books about a rather unusual family: the Bolds. These hyenas, originally from the Masai

Mara National Reserve in Kenya, manage to fnd their S D R A C T S O P D R I B K O O B way to England with “un-needed” tourists’ passports and clothing. On arrival, they make their way to Teddington, a leafy suburb of London (actually the author’s birthplace) The genesis of this book is unique. It emerged and try to lead their lives as “humans.” This, of course, from a series of educational workshops in a is problematic, and Clary’s hilarious story follows the predominantly Islamic area of Ghana, evidenced by family as they try to adapt—not an easy task, as it involves The Bolds the traditional story structure and cultural and making changes such as walking on hind legs, hiding tails, Julian Clary linguistic references found throughout the work. not laughing too much, and refraining from habits like Illus. David Roberts Its plot focuses on environmental sustainability rubbing their bottoms on bushes to mark their territories! London: Andersen Press, and corporate development at the forefront of the Secrets such as these, however, are diffcult to hide, 2015. 263 pp. lives of three animal friends living along the Zongo especially from a grumpy, nosey neighbor who is watching ISBN: 978-1-78344-305-5 Lagoon. The illustrations are colorful, captivating, their every move. The Bolds is great fun, full of cringe- (Fiction; ages 7+) and non-stereotypical. As a folk tale, it is consistent making jokes and impossible to put down!

with Ghanaian traditional storytelling and grade- Penni Cotton B O O K B I R D P O S T C A R D S S D R A C T S O P D R I B K O O B appropriate for young readers. The story is relatable in cross-cultural contexts but also highlights Ghanaian culture, including contemporary Ghana. The inclusion of Hausa words shows the diversity of ethnic groups and languages spoken in Ghana. Most interesting are This English language translation of Tanah Tabu the classroom applications—both the narrative and is one of the few Indonesian historical novels the story behind it offer opportunities for classroom Gizo-Gizo! A Tale from available to youth outside of Indonesia. Mabel, discussions and lessons on environmental problems the Zongo Lagoon Thayf’s protagonist, lives in Papua, the easternmost Emily Williamson with the in our communities, the importance of community Indonesian island. The story of Mable’s life Students and Teachers of the involvement and initiative, and the value of creating highlights the great need for education, political Hassaniyya Quranic School in justice, and social welfare for the people of Papua stories collectively in our classrooms. Overall, the Cape Coast, Ghana S D R A C T S O P D R I B K O O B book is community-created, community-centered, as well as brings to life the lush, natural beauty of Legon-Accra, Nigeria: the island. Employing the innocent voices of Pum (a and community-specifc in its creation and plot and is Sub-Saharan Publishers/ dog), Kwee (a pig), and Leksi (Mabel’s seven-year- an excellent example of relevant literature produced African Books Collective, 2016. old granddaughter), Thayf addresses these societal primarily for a particular setting but valuable to a Unpaged. much wider audience. ISBN: 9789988860325. issues, which during the New Order era (between Breeanna Elliott (Folklore; ages 4–8) the 1970s to the end of the 1990s) were often left untold. Daughters of Papua will solicit different Daughters of Papua responses from a reader who returns to the text at Anindita S. Thayf different stages of life—with Mabel’s voice echoing Trans. Stefanny Irawan against the walls of conscience, “We have to be San Mateo, CA: Dalang strong… our children and grandchildren must have Publishing, 2014. 176 pp. a better life… be strong.”. ISBN: 978-0-9836273-9-5 Theresia Enny Anggraini (Fiction; ages 12+)

BOOKBIRD 52 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 53 55.3–2017 Reviews REVIEWS: BOOKS ON BOOKS

Thórarinsdóttir from Iceland observe that their children’s literatures reflect the very specific nature of their coun- tries and societies, which “function differently” in many ways than the “big” Danish or Swedish ones, thus calling for and producing “different” books. Other authors draw on the sociology and history of literature to counter Bregnhøi’s “hypotheses”, such as Nina Christensen, who Books on asks what childhood concepts “Nordic” children’s liter- ature is based on and how it fits into literary traditions. While Christensen wants to create a social consciousness for the importance of children’s literature, Danish jour- nalist Anita Barsk Rasmussen addresses the question of which power relations manifest themselves in literary Books awards. Due to the difference in status between children and adults the children’s literature system suffers from “imbalanced power structures”. The danger: the adults Compiled and edited by Jutta Reusch and Christiane Raabe dominating the discourse surreptitiously dictate what children’s books are to look like. The result: the fallacy of nominating the books that comply with the “norms” that the jury established in the first place. Since most DEN NORDISKE BØRNEBOG participants are unaware of these processes, they fail to re- Ed. by Anette Øster: København: Høst & Søn; flect on their own “position of power” within the literary 2016. 124 pages. system, which aggravates the problem. Rasmussen’s essay, ISBN: 978-87-638-4488-8 which critically recounts and reflects her own reporting on the “Nordisk Råds Pris for barne- og ungdomslit- teratur“ adds an important dimension to the collective Just do your own thing – that used to be the way it volume and the generally rather consensus-driven Nordic worked. But recent years have seen more co-operation on children’s book scene. Rasmussen’s discerning reflections the Nordic children’s literature scene. One reason for this on the underlying structures of the children’s book milieu development may be the “Nordisk Råds Pris for barne- are highly insightful and easily transferable. og ungdomslitteratur“, founded by the Nordic Council in It is texts like this one that make “Den nordiske 2013: A Nordic Jury selects a winner from the North, all børnebog” a worthwhile read. It offers information while languages, countries, and regions being equally eligible. critically questioning the information discourse as such. The first winners came from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Published by a Danish “trade publisher”, this book should and Iceland. CHRISTIANE RAABE is the director and JUTTA REUSCH reach many readers. A wider public would surely have ap- Den nordiske børnebog is a book compiled in conjunc- is the head of the library services of the International Youth preciated greater terminological precision: instead of us- tion with the prize and features Nordic writers, artists, ing “børnebog” as an umbrella term for children’s books, Library in Munich, Germany. scholars, and journalists. It is inspired by a comic book picture books, and young adult literature, the genres by Danish illustrator Rasmus Bregnhøi, in which his alter should have been more clearly defined. And how come ego wants to write a children’s book and reflects on what Norway is “only” represented by one comic by Lene it takes to be classified as Nordic: The book ought to Ask while Denmark gets to enter several authors into the be dark and serious, the author has to take the children race? The Copenhagen imprint may be partly responsible hostage to confront his own fears, and mothers should be for this imbalance, but it runs counter the professed inten- ego-centred; myths are a vital ingredient as well as sex, tion of the book. While many authors stay confined with- queer-topics, and death, of course. Steer clear of colors, in their own linguistic and literary boundaries, the “small” craziness and comic elements. DEN NORDISKE BØRNEBOG 55 countries and languages will surprise readers by looking Bregnhøi’s comic is not only self-ironic, it is also a further and establishing connections between their chil- CHILDREN AND WAR: NATIONAL EDUCATION way-over-the-top satire. It nevertheless contains many dren’s literature and others, partly because they had been grains of truth while very knowingly blending many AND MASS CULTURE 56 supplied with “export literature”: Swedish books were other aspects. All contributions engage with Bregnhøi’s CENSURAS Y LITERATURA INFANTIL Y translated into Icelandic, but not Icelandic ones into “hypotheses”: Some essays pitch examples from “their” Swedish – which begs the question concerning power JUVENIL EN EL SIGLO XX 57 countries to prove Bregnhøi’s “reflexions” wrong or at and consent… In any case: “Den nordiske børnebog” will least to nuance them. These often rather descriptive CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND THE AVANT-GARDE 58 inspire readers to discover the diversity of Nordic litera- articles are important because they provide “basic knowl- tures and to read many, many books. ALICE IN TRANSMEDIA WONDERLAND: CURIOUSER AND edge” about the “smaller” languages and regions that CURIOUSER NEW FORMS OF A CHILDREN’S CLASSIC 59 have received less attention: children’s literature form ZOLOTYKH STUPENEK RIAD: KNIGA O DETSTVE I Greenland, Iceland, for example, or in Faroese and the INES GALLING Sami languages. Other articles open up new perspectives: International Youth Library KNIGI DETSTVA 60 Marna Jacobsen from the Faroe Islands and Brynildur Translated by Nikola von Merveldt

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Chapter 1 describes the normalization of war expe- Zhang Leping’s protagonist, a street boy called Sanmao, riences through textbooks. Bookstores and publishing first made his appearance in 1935 in the Shanghai news- houses distributed war-relevant everyday-knowledge in paper Chenbao. He embodied the fate of many Chinese the form of education manuals, teaching material, and children of the time. 1946-1949 Sanmao’s stories were literature. Book series such as “Education of Children in published as serial comic strips, 1949 they were made Times of War” advocated physical fitness for resistance, into a film – and shown as the first film of the People’s national consciousness, and the spirit of sacrifice while Republic. While Sanmao began his career as a mid- recommending “games for the defense of the state”. dle-class child from Shanghai, he adapted his biography Children were no longer merely considered underage to the needs of the official propaganda: 1946 he mutated consumers of child-friendly publications, but as potential to a malnourished street child, and 1949 to a well-fed agents of resistance. The necessary nationalism should be young comrade. inculcated through a collective sense of threat, leading to The protagonist of Huang Yuliu’s unfinished novel the key concept of national salvation education in prima- “Xiajiu’s Biography”, subject of chapter 3, equally falls ry schools. under the spell of propaganda. The coming-of-age novel, Unrelated to this state-induced sense of terror is the first published 1947 in the Hong-Kong newspaper “Hua perspective of individual children suffering from anxiety shang bao”, recounts how sixteen-year-old Hong Kong in the face of war and violence. Striking examples are the street kid and small-time crook Xiajiu reforms himself to “Autobiography of a young refugee”, the published diary join the revolutionary troops. His childlike naiveté allows of the thirteen-year-old girl Wu Danian chronicling the for a romantic view of war and revolution and subtly sub- years 1937-1938, or comics drawn by children, portraying dues any suspicion of political indoctrination. war and published in the Shanghai children’s magazine In chapter 6, the author traces the continuing con- ER TONG YU ZHAN ZHENG: “Chinese Children”. junction between childhood and war in the 1950s and CENSURAS Y LITERATURA INFANTIL Y GUO ZU, JIAO YU JI DA ZHONG WEN HUA Chapter 2 looks at the discovery of village kids and 1960s in continental China, Hong Kong, and the Chinese JUVENIL EN EL SIGLO XX. [CHILDREN AND WAR: NATIONAL EDUCATION AND their instrumentalization for propaganda purposes. They populated regions of South-East-Asia. Site of this new (En España y 7 países latinoamericanos) MASS CULTURE] became the target for textbooks specifically designed cultural Cold War are the Chinese magazines “Young [Censorship in literature for children and young adults in By Xu Lanjun. Series: Bo ya wen xue lun cong. Peking for rural residents and children in border territories, cele- friends” in two separate editions (one for the Republic of the twentieth century. (In Spain and seven Latin-American University Press, 2015. 237 pages. brating physical training and labor as well as ideological China, one for Hong Kong) as well as “The children of countries). Ed. by Pedro C. Cerrillo and María Victoria ISBN: 978-7-301-23994-0 warfare. Elementary schools in the border districts were Nanyang” and “Children of the world” from Singapore. Sotomayor. Series: Estudios; 155. Cuenca: Ediciones de la instructed to perform military exercises and to train chil- She shows how the independence of the South-Asian Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2016. 472 pages. The childhood concept discovered by modern Chinese dren for war-relevant activities. In the “Soviet zones” in countries lead to a gradual emancipation of the magazines ISBN: 978-84-9044-233-3; 978-84-9044-234-0 (digital Literature at the beginning of the twentieth century and the Jiangxi province, “child-worker-corps” for children of from the Chinese “mother land” and transformed the edition) its romantic idealization became obsolete during the workers and peasants were set up. Children’s magazines Chinese “nationalism of the diaspora” to a “transnational Censorship is a well-studied topic, but is usually neglected Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). Childhood had such as “Be prepared!” and “Communist Primer” promot- identity”. inliterature for children and young adults. All the more to be reinvented. ed the political participation of child-corps and encour- Xu Lanjun’s seminal study closes a gap in Chinese welcome is a research project conducted by five Spanish The author of this study takes on this topic neglect- aged children to win over their parents to the cause of the children’s literature research and shows how the concepts and four Latin American universities from 2014 to 2016, ed by Chinese literary studies by looking at discourses revolution. of “child” and “children’s literature” change in times of which analyses by the example of authoritarian regimes about childhood as a cultural construct and by analyzing Literature was also called upon to reflect on the crisis and become questionable. in Spain and Latin America in the 20th century how cen- contemporary Chinese literature for children, including economic and political instrumentalization of children. sorship works in children’s literature. The results of this primers and textbooks, plays, magazines, games of war, The short story “A child’s speech” by Xiao Hong, which LUCIA OBI project are now made available in this volume, edited by literary works by children and with child-protagonists, describes the everyday effort of young “auxiliary soldiers” International Youth Library Pedro C. Cerrillo and María Victoria Sotomayor. comics, and films. By situating the concept of childhood to support war propaganda, is a typical example. Translated by Nikola von Merveldt The first section, taking up more than half, studies in China within the discourses of nation building, war In the 1930s, many schools had closed and refugee the Franco regime in Spain (1939-1976). The archival propaganda, education, and mass culture, Xu offers an children were left to their own devices. Reform peda- material is rich and easily accessible, allowing for a good insightful historical contextualization. gogues thus advocated an “education through life” and understanding of the structures, methods, and results of a In her introduction, she assesses the state of cultural celebrated children as “young teachers” of the backward state-controlled, institutionalized censorship. The authors history childhood studies and observes that in China the rural population. They were encouraged to join theater list the existing laws and regulations and the criteria that concept of childhood is closely connected to the political and propaganda groups. Chapter 3 presents the “Xin’an the censors or their assistant “readers” (“lectores”) used. discourse of nation building, which focuses on the back- Traveling Troupe” and the “Children’s Drama Troupe” Even though it is impossible to reconstruct everything in wardness and need for education of peasants and children as examples of such child-led groups, which travelled detail, the meticulous scholarship also succeeded in com- alike. War is supposed to provide them with a collective the country in the name of war propaganda. They doc- piling an annotated list of censored titles. experience and a common cultural identity, which pre- umented their experiences in magazines, newspapers, The censorship justifications testify to a remarkable pare the ground for the foundation of the state. and in books. The children themselves or a professional arbitrariness and lack of literary knowledge on the part of Working for the propaganda corps, children often playwright would write plays whose protagonists were the authorities. It is striking that many (international) chil- produced texts addressed to adults. The boundaries peasant kids in the service of the war effort and known as dren’s book classics were censored; young adult literature between literature for children and adults, textbooks, “weapons in the war of resistance against the Japanese”. was targeted much more than books for younger readers, propaganda, and literature merge during the war years. Comics, just like the theater, published in Shanghai and generally censorship struck because of moral or re- The author takes this into consideration by drawing on a in the 1930s in various magazines and newspapers, served ligious concerns, rather than for political or ideological wide range of sources. as a political medium and successful propaganda tool. Chapter 4 presents the most famous comic of the time. reasons. This could be due to the close alliance between

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the authoritarian national-conservative regime and the research project and calls for further studies in this field. prising that this topic has been little studied so far. post-bellum France, the USA, and Germany (especially Roman-Catholic church of Spain, which also served to It would be highly interesting, for example, to look at Most contributions focus on the visual influences, 1960s/1970s): They underscore the important role that secure the respective spheres of power and influence. recent trends because in various countries children’s while only a few address textual and literary avant-garde the French-American publishing company Harlin Quist Further chapters on Spain focus on specific aspects, books are subject to non-official censorship until today. concepts. In their introduction, editors Elina Druker and played by opening up children’s literature to avant-garde such as the banning of the works written by authors The perspective could also be broadened to include the Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer point out that the term texts (Ionesco) and to art movements such as Pop Art living in exile or the children’s books written in Catalan, censorship of other media for children and young adults, avant-garde itself proves to be heterogeneous and diffi- and surrealism, hereby causing a pedagogic revolt in the Basque or Galician, whose public use was prohibited notably film, television, and digital media. In light of the cult to define. “Avant-garde” is used as epithet to many children’s book domain. They also demonstrate that the under Franco. current global trend towards more authoritarian, anti-lib- cutting-edge artistic movements of the twentieth century “seminal idea propagated by avant-garde artists of disrupt- The second part features chapters on Argentina, eral tendencies – in political, social, cultural, and religious and covers various art concepts in different countries (for ing the perceptual habits” (11) and thereby reinvigorated Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, and respect – it would surely be worthwhile to undertake this volume: France, Germany, Russia, USA, GB, Hun- art and literature, and, furthermore inspired children’s Venezuela. They can be read independently and are more seminal studies looking at censorship of children’s gary, Sweden, Denmark). At the core is “the idea of the literature and the picture books. Taking this understand- much shorter than the Spanish ones, offering less detail. literature in other countries and continents. vanguard as ahead of their time, advanced and progres- ing of avant-garde to its logical conclusion, Philip Nel This could be due to the fact that censorship of literature sive” (1), a new, revolutionary esthetic, future-bound and proclaims in the closing chapter: “For the earliest readers, for children and young adults is much less documented programmatically transgressing the rules of established, all books are avant-garde.” (272). JOCHEN WEBER in these countries. The chapters are nevertheless illumi- International Youth Library elitist art by subverting and recasting them, often with a nating because they illustrate the variety of censorship Translated by Nikola von Merveldt political agenda and international outlook. KATJA WIEBE attempts and measures as well as the motifs and strategies Not limited to analyzing the influence of esthetic International Youth Library specific to each country and its censorship agents. They concepts on children’s literature, this seminal collec- Translated by Nikola von Merveldt range from state-controlled censorship (as in Spain – in tion of essays also explores constructions of childhood, the forms of pre-censorship and retroactive censorship) children’s reading experiences, and perception. Such an to more subtle forms (“censura soterrada”), such as com- open understanding of avant-garde helps demonstrate pulsory reading lists for schools or lists of recommended the scholarly potential of this field of inquiry. But it does reading, which churches, parents’ associations, or other bear the danger of subsuming nearly every artistic move- social lobby groups used to exert influence – all the way ment of the twentieth century under the avant-garde to “voluntary” self-censorship for financial reasons by au- label, even the rather nostalgic romantic modernism of thors and publishers. the 1920s-1940s (cf. Kimberley Reynold’s essay).It never- Censorship in Argentina during the military dicta- theless is fascinating to trace the multiple developments torship (1976-1983) gets more detailed coverage because and cross-fertilizations between art and childhood culture; of solid sources. Following the coup, strict state-censor- it also helps to identify stylistic references, such as the ship was put into place, and enforced by the Ministry of affinity of avant-garde artists to primitivism or infantilism Education, the security services, and customs. Contrary instead of mislabeling these artistic concepts as imitations to Spain, Argentinian state-censorship concentrated on of infantile perception or reading. children’s literature. The regime, waging the ideological The volume opens with Marilynn Olson’s essay on battle against communism (and everything it considered the nineteenth-century British art critic and social reform- to fit that bill) tried to have the Ministry of Education er John Ruskin, who early on recognized connections endorse their doctrine and to raise a generation of sub- between children’s literature and art defying academic missive and conformist subjects. standards. This chapter prepares the ground for the In Latin-American countries without official other explorations of avant-garde in children’s literature. state-censorship, more indirect forms of suppression Two case studies – one on the Swedish artist Einar Ner- can be discerned. The chapter of Mexico explores the man (1910s-1920s) and one on the Hungarian Sándor mechanisms of this kind of “censura soterrada”. It worked Bortnyik (1920s) – present artists whose contribution because only government-supported books were accept- to children’s literature have not been recognized before. ALICE IN TRANSMEDIA WONDERLAND: CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND THE AVANT-GARDE. CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER NEW FORMS OF A ed into the state-sponsored programs while other titles Ed. by Elina Druker and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer. The whole middle section is devoted to the impact of the were simply ignored, either because of their content or prominent Russian avant-garde. It comprises insightful CHILDREN’S CLASSIC. Series: Children’s literature, culture, and cognition; 5. by Anna Kérchy. Jefferson, N. C.: McFarland & Co., because they were written in an indigenous language. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing contributions on the influence of the Russian avant-garde The situation in Venezuela was similar. Publishing on Danish children’s books around 1933 or a big exhi- 2016. 257 pages. Company, 2015, 295 pages. ISBN: 978-1-4766-6668-6 houses, and accordingly the production and distribution ISBN: 978-90-272-0159-1 bition in Amsterdam on Soviet avant-garde children’s of undesirable books were hindered. In Cuba, a country literature in the 1920s. Sara Pankenier Weld‘s and Evg- officially without censorship, state-controlled economy eny Steiner’s chapters are of special interest: Pankenier In Alice in Transmedia Wonderland: Curiouser and Curiouser New became the decisive factor. State-controlled publishers These conference proceedings look at the artistic Weld analyses the connections between the avant-garde Forms of a Children’s Classic, author Anna Kérchy analyzes and printing houses determined what was published. The avant-garde and its impact on the development of chil- infantile and children’s drawings and observes that both a wide range of Alice adaptations across many forms of cutting of funding or rationing of paper were other meth- dren’s literature. Divided into three thematically and share a predilection for fundamental concepts, such as media. These creative transmedia interpretations give ods of such indirect censorship. chronologically ordered sections, the authors explore the simple geometric shapes. Steiner reveals the avant-garde audiences new ways to experience the story and include Even though it is somewhat heterogenous and brings activities of avant-garde artists in the field of children’s movements of the USSR and the USA in the 1920s and books, movies, iPad apps, ballets, puppet shows, fan art, up very different things of the history of the studied literature, the relevance of avant-garde views of art and 1930s to be mirror images of one another (New Man/So- and even Tom Waits’s 2002 Alice album. The book focus- of the world for children’s literature, as well as children’s countries, “Censuras y Literatura Infantil y Juvenil en viet Man, technology and space), both reflected in their es primarily on adaptations created in the late twentieth literature about avant-garde art. Given the broad trans- el siglo XX” is an enriching read, providing an excellent respective avant-garde picture books. or early twenty-first centuries. The analyses consider overview over specific forms and developments of cen- national influence of avant-garde movements, which the The edited volume closes with three reflec- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, sorship in children’s literature. It documents a pioneering contributions convincingly document, it may seem sur- tions on the postmodern avant-garde movements in

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and What Alice Found There together as one “intertextual, of Russian children’s literature presented from the most process of the poet’s maturation precisely through his dialogic unit” (1). unexpected angle. work for children that helped him find his own voice. In the introduction, Kérchy writes that one goal The book consists of four parts and a preface While analyzing the most controversial prose by Arkadii in analyzing these works is to find “how intermedial entitled “My World: Children’s Literature”. In this Gaidar, his short story “Blue Cup”, Putilova moves away transitions elicit different modes of enchantment, disen- foreword, Putilova shares with her readers the journey from the discussion of the appropriateness of this work chantment, and re-enchantment” (3). Another purpose she undertook to become the leading critic and historian for children and no longer regards it as a “deviation” is to show how these interpretations use the readers’ of Russian children’s literature. An astute student of toward the world of adult conflict. Instead, Putilova insists senses to build on Carroll’s original works and create an philology, she first dedicated her attention to Russian that moral dilemmas and emotional issues are equally ever-expanding universe of Alice tales. Given the range of classics and investigated works by Fyodor Dostoevsky, important for parents and children and must be attended adaptations presented, it is clear that this universe is both but soon shifted her attention to a subject she knew to with care and understanding. large and growing, and the author examines a diverse se- very little about – children’s literature. Reflecting on In Parts Three and Four of this book, Putilova lection that connects to the original texts in creative and this transition, the scholar writes, “The more I had to returns to her calling as a historian of children’s unexpected ways. read children’s books and think about them, the more literature without abandoning literary analyses. Part The book is comprised of four chapters, each of I became enchanted by the enormous wealth of this Three, “Resurrected Names”, discusses works of such which centers on a general theme. These chapters are new world that was opening up to me. I understood forgotten writers as Aleksandra Annenskaia, a famous further split into specific topics with one or more adap- that within this world I finally found my calling in life” 19th-century writer and editor of children’s journals, tations included in each. Kérchy analyzes these adapta- (Putilova, 9). Vera Zhelikhovskaia, Poliksena Solov’eva, and others tions, connecting them loosely to the main theme of the The four parts that follow the introduction are rather whose literary fame at the time was impressive and chapter. The first part explores transmedia adaptations eclectic. The first two are organized chronologically. whose contribution to the development of children’s with a special focus on the play between image and text. Part One, entitled “For the Heart and Mind”, references literature was dismissed during Soviet times. Putilova was The second chapter shows the role the character of Alice the title of the very first periodical for children, Children’s the leading source in rescuing these authors from their plays in adaptations, and the reluctance audiences may Reading for the Heart and Mind, created in 1785 by journalist oblivion, and she writes about their work with a critical have in accepting the imaginative and at times nonsen- and writer Nikolai Novikov. In this section, Putilova eye while maintaining full respect for their contribution sical world of the Alice stories. Chapter three discusses incorporates a concise chart of the milestones in the and their legacy in Russia. The same approach is used erotic interpretations and addresses allegations regard- ZOLOTYKH STUPENEK RIAD: KNIGA O DETSTVE I development of children’s literature, thereby devoting her in Part Four, in which the scholar talks about literary ing Lewis Carroll’s relationship with Alice Liddell, the KNIGI DETSTVA. attention to some of the neglected personalities of this works – poems and songs – that due to their popularity real-life inspiration for the character of Alice. The final [A Series of Golden Steps: A Book about Childhood and process. Alongside canonic names like Dmitrii Fonvizin have all lost their affiliation with the authors who created chapter looks at a wide array of adaptations that enchant Childhood Books]. and Aleksandr Shishkov, she talks about Andrei Bolotov them. The six short chapters resemble detective stories the senses and even includes a cookbook. Evgeniia Putilova. St. Petersburg: Dom detskoi knigi, and the special contribution to children’s literature made in which Putilova the archivist discovers the original texts Throughout the book, photo examples from works 2015. 312 pages. by Catherine II. The chapters in this part are organized of these highly popular works that survived all political ISBN: 978-5990580763 discussed and fan art inspired by the adaptations are in- thematically, although they are dedicated to one or two turmoils and remained loved by Russian people. cluded. This fan art illustrates the ever-expanding Alice The latest book authored by Evgeniia Oskarovna classics of Russian literature, such as Anton Chekhov or In conclusion, I would like to return to the title of universe, but these images are not usually addressed in Putilova, who is widely recognized as a doyen of Russian Leo Tolstoy. Their contribution to children’s literature the book, A Series of Golden Steps, which was adapted from the main text, and at times, depictions from the works children’s literature, history, and criticism, is an important is viewed not as a byproduct of their writing for the the poem of a forgotten Russian-Jewish poet, Semyon themselves could have been more effective. achievement even for this well-known scholar. In her adult audience, but rather as a conscious attempt to Frug. This title serves as a guiding principle to this Overall, Alice in Transmedia Wonderland provides a great study of her favorite subject, Russian children’s literature, create serious works both thematically and esthetically book of literary criticism and historical overview of the critical introduction to contemporary transmedia interpre- Putilova seamlessly combines her personal story with addressed to the young. complicated processes that guided Russian children’s tations of Lewis Carroll’s original works. Summaries are the thoroughly researched history of children’s literature The same approach is used by Putilova when she literature from its very beginnings to its very end in the included, so readers do not need to be familiar with the of different periods, from the very beginnings of this transitions into Part Two, “While Opening the Door 20th century. The 1990s and the dissolution of the adaptations to appreciate the analyses. Chapter notes, an literature’s formation to the major contributions during into the Workshop.” Among the writers discussed in former Soviet Empire produced another rift with the past, extensive bibliography, and an index are also included. the Soviet era. In contemporary criticism of Russian this section, one can find some of Russia’s most famous now the Soviet one. The book under review provides This work appeals primarily to an academic readership, children’s literature, it has become almost obligatory to poets: Aleksander Block, Osip Mandelshtam, Ol’ga contemporary scholars in the 21st century, in Russia and especially those with a basis in postmodernist theory. stress the rift between the pre-revolutionary period and Bergholts, and Nikolai Zabolotskii. This chapter is abroad, an opportunity to see the connectivity of literary Scholars with interests in particular topics or adaptations the radical change to the government-controlled Soviet particularly concerned with the techniques employed by processes across centuries or political regimes and to can appreciate individual articles or chapters without hav- literary production for children. From the very first pages these writers when their addressee was a child. Putilova recognize their uninterrupted legacy. ing read the complete book. Though the voice and scope of her book, Putilova refuses to conform to this pattern, recalibrates her focus from the history of children’s are solidly academic, casual readers who are devoted thus creating a provocative image of continuity and literature creation to the creative process. Among the Alice fans may also find the subjects to be interesting and cultural legacy among the most important children’s writers most interesting contributions to this part (at least MARINA BALINA enjoyable. before and after the October Revolution. She identifies for this reviewer) are the essays written on Nikolai Professor of Russian Studies Illinois Wesleyan University, USA deep ties between generations of children’s writers in Zabolotskii and Arkadii Gaidar. Putilova opens “the MICHELLE BOURGEOIS Russia and refuses to surrender to the widely circulated door into the workshop” of these writers to her readers. International Youth Library notion that the body of Soviet Russian children’s texts When she writes about Zabolotskii, she demonstrates manifested a deep disconnect with previously published the complexity of his work for children as a platform for works. A Book about Childhood is, in fact, a compact history his future poetic expressions. Putilova demonstrates the

BOOKBIRD 60 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 61 55.3–2017 FOCUS IBBY: NEWS 3/2017 Focus IBBY or reading room can be an excellent opportunity to discussions, the conference went on to talk about get to know one another in a neutral environment.” how to support young refugees through libraries. Joseph Nhan O’Reilly, Head of the Education This section included a talk by Jochen Weber Policy and Advocacy for Save the Children UK, about the International Youth Library, Bibliothèques 55.3/2017 set the scene by giving perspectives on the current sans Frontières by Muy-Cheng Peich, and the re- refugee situation. UK member Ann Lazim reported sponse of the public library in Calais, France by that amongst the statistics he presented was the fact Bénédicte Frocaut. After lunch, Mariella Berelli By Liz Page that over half of the world’s refugees are children, (Canada) led story time and then introduced the and 6.7 million are of school age; not only that, it is Silent Books project. Deborah Soria (Italy) intro- poorer countries that are receiving the largest num- duced the IBBY Project Silent Books: Final Destination ber of refugees. The average time for displacement Lampedusa. The project has also been instigated in of a refugee from their country of origin is twen- Sweden by IBBY Sweden, and Cay Corneliuson ty-seven years. gave a presentation about what they are doing in Other presentations were grouped by topic. Sweden. Helen Limon (UK) gave a moving account The session on supporting young refugees with of her experiences during the 2016 Lampedusa reading and book projects included the Book Pirates camp as a volunteer. Hasmig Chahinian (France) by Martin Gries (Germany); the Vooelees Express and Eva Devos (Belgium) gave the audience a de- Reading project by Marloes Robijn (Netherlands); scription and invitation to explore the IBBY Europe LIZ PAGE is Executive Eux, c’est nous, which is a book about refugees that Tool Kit that is featured on the IBBY Europe web- Director of the International has been produced as a joint initiative by forty site. A round-up discussion explored ways the IBBY Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) French children’s publishers, presented by Sophie European sections could move forward with a stron- Giraud and Laurence Faron (France); and two au- ger network, sharing information and resources. thors gave accounts of their writing for refugees, See more at www.ibby-europe.org, www.facebook. Laila Koubaa (Belgium) and Neli Kodrič Filipič com/IBBY.Europe/ (Slovenia). With plenty of time for comments and In May, ThaiBBY were the hosts and organiz-

IBBY Regional Meetings

The IBBY cycle is a two-year cycle—the Andersen Worlds: Reaching out to Young Refugees with Awards, the IBBY Honour List, and the world con- Books and Stories—continues to be very relevant gress in an even year; and the IBBY outstanding in Europe, both currently and historically. The selection of books for young people with disabil- conference opened with a welcome by Franco Boni, ities, the Silent Books selection, and the regional the President of the Bologna Fiere. Then IBBY congresses in the uneven year. The 2017 Regional President, Wally De Doncker, spoke to the theme Meetings began with congresses in Bologna for of the conference by saying, “If you want to wel- Europe, Bangkok for the Asia and Oceania region, come refugee children in a friendly way, you have to and in Buenos Aires for the Latin American sec- start with the children of the communities. People tions. can only live in harmony when both sides under- The 1st European Regional Conference was orga- stand that refugees arrive because they are victims nized jointly by several sections in Europe and of a terrible situation in their home country and took the form of a one-day conference in con- have little choice. Refugee children and the chil- nection with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair dren in the community can learn empathy through Somboon Singkamanan talking about going back to the roots Mingzhou Zhang announcing the 4th Asia and Oceania on Thursday, 6 April 2017. The theme—Bridging books and activities related to books, and a library of children’s literature and learning to uproot. Regional IBBY Congress in 2019.

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ers of the 3rd Asia and Oceania Regional IBBY Congress The V Encuentro de IBBY Latinoaméricaa y del Caribe (AORIC). The congress was held in Bangkok 9–12 took place 25–27 April, with the theme Voces de May at Thailand Knowledge Park, better known as latinamérica en los libros para bebés, niños y jóvnenes TK Park. The theme was Children’s Books in the (Latin-American voices in the books for babies, Digital Age. The program opened with speeches children and young adults), within the framework and welcomes, including speeches by ThaiBBY of the International Book Fair of Buenos Aires and President Khunying, Dr. Kasama Vraravarn, and in the Muiño Room of the San Martín Cultural Rames Promyen, the Acting Director General of Center. In addition to the meeting, which was open TK Park. IBBY President, Wally De Doncker, to the public, the biennial meeting of the Latin gave a keynote speech where he said, “ThaiBBY America IBBY sections was held on 27 April in is providing a unique forum where children’s the Arnaldo Orfila Reynal Cultural Center. The literature experts and enthusiasts can share and meeting was attended by eleven representatives exchange their ideas and experiences.” Long-term from the twelve regional IBBY sections: Pilar member and Honorary IBBY Member Somboon Muñoz Lascano (Argentina), Elizabeth D’Angelo Singkamanan presented one of the keynote speech- Serra (Brazil), Gaby Vallejo Canedo (Bolivia), Pedro es on the first morning. Somboon won the IBBY José Luis Pulido Díaz (Colombia), Emilia Gallego Asahi Reading Promotion Award in 1989 for her Alfonso (Cuba), Constanza Mekis (Chile), Julio Latin American IBBY representatives pioneering work with portable libraries in Thailand. Fared Awad Yépez (Ecuador), María Cristina Vargas After her retirement she returned to her birthplace, (Mexico), María Elena Rodríguez Álvarez (Peru), Among the audience present were participants because one of the primary missions of the section where she grows the native traditional and now Adriana Mora Saravia (Uruguay), and Olga Teresa from neighboring countries, as well as from differ- is the training and support of reading mediators. award-winning Sangyod Muang Phatthalung rice. González Yunis (Venezuela), as well as the winner ent provinces of Argentina. ALIJA awarded a large More information about the conference is at The following days were full of lectures and of the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award in the number of scholarships to students, teachers, and li- http://quintoencuentroibby.com/ events related to the theme, with IBBY members category Illustration, Roger Mello. Furthermore, a brarians to attend. This was a very important action from the region and others. In all there were 370 delegation of representatives from IBBY Bolivia and participants, the majority from Thailand, but with IBBY Uruguay joined the meeting. 130 from twenty-five different countries. The During the meeting, twenty-eight speakers many highlights included talks by Murti Bunanta participated in six central sessions and five panel 3rd Nami Island Concours (Indonesia), Natwut Amornvivat (Thailand), Ram events. The topics covered different issues—such as Kumar Panday (Nepal), Jenni Woodroffe (Australia), publications for children and youth today, covering IBBY is closely linked to Nami Island in a mu- Nita Berry (India), Evangeline Ledi Barongo different ways of training readers and mediators for tually beneficial relationship that has lasted and (Uganda), Satoshi Takano (Japan), and Patsy Aldana different media forms (including illustration, juvenile grown over the past twelve years—see Bookbird issue (Canada). The National Sections of the region novel, cartoon strip, and theater). An overview of volume 44, 2005/4 for a description of former also presented their activities to the participants: IBBY activities in the different countries of Latin IBBY President Peter Schneck’s first visit to the representatives from Australia, Cambodia, India, America (Brazil, Chile, Cuba, and Mexico) was magical island of books for the first Nami Island Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, New also presented, as well as different institutions that International Children’s Book Festival, NamBook. Zealand, and Thailand gave visual as well as oral work in reading promotion in Argentina—such as The festival was initiated to celebrate the 200 an- presentations. The participants also had a chance CEDILIJ (winner of the 2002 IBBY-Asahi Reading niversary of Hans Christian Andersen. Four years to dance and tell stories. Vijatlakshmi Nagaraj from Promotion Award for the project Por el derecho/For later in 2009, Nami Island Inc. became the official India, Jenni Woodroffe from Australia, and a story- the right to read), the Civil Association Jitanjáfora, sponsor of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. teller from China shared stories, while Vagn Plenge and the Mempo Giardinelli Foundation (winner of In 2010, the anthology Peace Story was compiled by from Denmark recalled his first visit to Thailand. the 2012 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award artists and authors drawn from the IBBY National The closing ceremony was the time to thank the for the project Abuelas Cuentacuentos/the Storytelling Sections. The organizing committee comprised hosts for an excellent congress and all the partici- Grandmothers). members from twenty IBBY sections. The finished pants who showed such commitment. IBBY Vice Three hundred twenty-eight people had regis- book included twenty-two stories all based on the President, Mingzhou Zhang, closed the congress tered for the conference, with an extra two hundred concept of peace, which was carefully edited by with an invitation to China for the 4th Asia and attending the academic meetings. The central Valerie Coghlan and Siobhán Parkinson, the then Oceania Regional IBBY Congress in 2019. conferences were shared with the Asociación de Bookbird editorial team from Ireland. Today IBBY has an even bigger presence on the island, with the Photographs from the congress can be seen at the dibujantes de Argentina (ADA: Association of Grand Prix winner The Locomotive, with Golden Island IBBYAORIC 2017 Facebook page. Cartoonists of Argentina). winners Vasilisa the Beautiful and Beastly Verse newly established Andersen Picture Book Center

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(APBC). A copy of every book sent to support a submissions from 89 countries. The international Dashdondog Jamba devoted his life to writing, nomination for the Hans Christian Andersen Award jury comprised Roger Mello from Brazil, Zohreh translating, publishing, and transporting books to will be archived in the Center and, with the dos- Ghaeni from Iran, Yukiko Hiromatsu from Japan, children all over Mongolia. He established the siers, be made available for scholars and researchers. Sung-ok Han from Korea, Yousef Gajah from Mongolian Children’s Mobile Library Project In 2013, the Nami Concours was established Malaysia, Anastasia Arkhipova from Russia, and around 1993 with the help of many volunteers—in- as a biennial competition for illustrators and has Junko Yokota from the USA was the jury chair. cluding students, writers, and artists, as well as his been held every two years in conjunction with the The 2017 Grand Prix was awarded to Małgorzata own family. The project focuses on the promotion NamBook Festival. The 8th NamBook Festival Gurowska from Poland for her book The Locomotive/ of reading among children in rural areas throughout took place during May 2017, and throughout the IDEOLO. Two Golden Island awards went to Mongolia, and it is specifically aimed at the young month, activities for children delighted the visitors, Anna Morgunova from Russia for Vasilisa the Beautiful people of the nomadic groups of herders who live both big and small. The Nami Concours Award and to Joo-hee Yoon from USA for Beastly Verse. in the remote areas of Mongolia. The mobile librar- Ceremony was a highlight on 14 May. The num- There were five Green Island awards presented and ies are transported not only by bus across the vast bers of entrants for the Concours has been growing ten Purple Island awards presented at the award steppes but also by camel! Over the last twenty-four since its inauguration, when 619 artists submitted ceremony on Nami Island. The results of the 2017 years, his library has traveled over 137,000km their work from 42 different countries—the 2015 Concours can be seen at http://www.namicon- through every province of Mongolia. competition attracted 1,330 submissions from 71 cours.com/ The first books used in the libraries were pic- countries, and the 2017 competition attracted 1,777 ture books, selected from the best children’s stories Receiving the 2006 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion by local and international authors. After this initial Award in Macau China selection, a campaign in Japan collected 10,000 pic- ture books donated by Japanese children. Mongo- for children into Mongolian instead, starting with A Mongolian Legend: lian students of Japanese translated the books, and tales by H.C. Andersen. Dashdondog Jamba (1941–2017) the translated texts were glued into the books over In 1991, shortly after the fall of the Communist the Japanese text. regime in Mongolia, he visited the International Since that time, Dashdondog has also been Youth Library in Munich, where he discovered writing children’s books, translating foreign youth more of the international world of children’s books. literature into Mongolian, and bringing books to Upon his return to Mongolia, he began to write children who would otherwise never read them. books that had more of a philosophical point to In 2006, his mobile library won the prestigious them that was based on the unique nomadic culture IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award. In 2012, he found in Mongolia. Since then his output has been made another appearance at an IBBY Congress, this wide, and amongst his talents he has written po- time in London, where he joined a Storytelling Trio ems, short stories, picturebooks, non-fiction, plays, for a plenary session. Storytelling was first and fore- operas, film scores, and around sixteen stage- and most his literary love. screenplays. All of his works have been aimed at Dashdondog Jamba was born in 1941 in introducing his readers to humanism and the tradi- Buregkhangai soum in the Bulgan province, about tional culture of Mongolia. He was nominated by the 300km from the capital Ulaanbaatar. He returned to IBBY section of Mongolia for the Hans Christian his birthplace to be buried next to his parents. It is Andersen Award in 2010 and 2018. One of his titles said that he used to draw pictures in the snow with was also selected for the 2006 IBBY Honour List. a stick and in the summer made animals from the In 2016 the President of Mongolia presented river mud. Once he was in school, he discovered the him with the annual State Award of Mongolia, joy of words and started to write poetry and by the which was given in recognition of his outstanding age of seventeen had published his first collection contribution to Mongolian children’s literature and of poems. He worked as editor-in-chief for maga- reading. In recognition of his work with children in zines and newspapers for young people for over Mongolia, notices of his passing were posted in the twenty years and published more than a hundred local and national press and the President, Prime books, with thirty-three of those published abroad. Minister, and the relevant minister issued a joint During the Communist period, he was dismissed announcement in all major newspapers, television from his job, accused of being a dissident. But he stations, and online news platforms. His tragic death Dashdondog on stage in London 2012 (photo Jack Dix Davies) never gave up and started to translate foreign books has left a deep scar in the reading world of Mongolia.

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The cover of this biography is elegant and symbolic: Gandhi’s portrait sits on an Indian canvas, reminiscent of traditional folk dhoti. Written by an experienced Italian librarian, it presents Mahatma Gandhi to young readers. Grandfather Ray Khumar tells Gandhi’s story to his nephew, Ghaffar, through letters and memoirs of his youth. These describe his activity as Gandhi’s disciple and explain Gandhi’s philosophy and human values, an effective epistolary narration style. Readers absorb emotions, impressions, and ideals in the historical context and setting. In 1917, S D R A C T S O P D R I B K O O B Gandhi advocated for indigo production by local owners opposed to British exportation; during his maturity, he fasted for important aims to support other civil and social causes of his compatriots. Gandhi fought exclusively through peaceful actions to set Indians free from British rule. He proved that anyone can obtain positive outcomes through nonviolence L’elefante e la Formica and dialogue. Reading this tale teaches children about (The Elephant and the Ant) the British colonization of India and leads them to Eleonora Bellini understand that economics infuence people’s lives and Naples, Italy: Edizioni every civilization deserves dignity and respect. Nonsoloparole, Alicia Morel (1921–2017) This biography is realistic and accurate; many Pollena Trocchia (NA), 2016. quotations enrich one’s comprehension of Gandhi’s 128 pp. Morel’s book Cuentos Araucanos: La gente de la tierra political creed. A useful appendix contains a glossary, ISBN: 9788888850627 Alicia Morel passed away in Santiago de Chile at (Araucanian stories: the people of the earth, 1982) historical chronology, and flmography. (Biography; ages 12+) the age of ninety-five. She was one of the most was included in the 1984 IBBY Honour list for the Claudia Camicia recognized voices of Chilean children’s literature quality of her writing. She was the Chilean nominee and in 1964 a co-founder of the National Section of for the 2000 Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her Chile. She was the author of many children’s books, rich imagination, coupled with her love of reading, always maintaining that the books of her childhood gave her a strong literary background and fed her influenced her work and personality. She enjoyed imaginary stories that were filled with animals, gob- reading the tales of Hans Christian Andersen, lins, and fairies. She also worked on translations of Selma Lagerlöf, and Lewis Carroll to her own seven authors such as Katherine Mansfield and Virginia children and was able to capture the minds of chil- Wolff and was much admired for her spirituality and dren with her stories that brimmed with fantasy and literary sensibility. originality. For more about her life and works visit (in Spanish): http://www.cervantesvirtual.com.

BOOKBIRD 68 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 69 55.3–2017 Calls Calls Translating and East meets West: Literature Transmediating Children’s for children and youth in Literatures and Cultures Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s • the visibility and/or the invisibility of mediators of Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s • Discussing the development of children’s literature Literature seeks contributions for a special issue on children’s literature Literature seeks contributions for a special issue on in Cyprus/Turkey/Greece the translation and transmediation of children’s liter- literature for children and youth in Greece, Turkey, atures and cultures. Mediation – whether in the form • intergenerational dynamics in translation and and Cyprus. The “East meets West” theme of this • Investigating the relationship between children’s of adaptation, translation or remediation – allows for transmediation (crossover fction, family adventure special issue is refected in all aspects of life in Turkey, literature and other aesthetic forms (visual arts, a reevaluation of a variety of notions ranging from flm, dual audiences, age appropriateness) Cyprus, and Greece: from architecture, to politics, dance, music, cinema, the theatre, etc.) authenticity, textuality, authorship, audience agency, pop culture, food, art, music, education, and of course age appropriateness, creativity, and storytelling. • image-textual dynamics (translating illustrated literature. The fows of people, cultures, religions, and • Analyzing the literary images of other countries, Henry Jenkins’ defnition of “transmedia storytell- stories, picturebooks, novelizations and subtitlings languages through this geographical triangle, and cultures, or ethnic groups in books published for ing,” in particular, encapsulates the worldbuilding of children’s cinema) their interactions within it, have historically produced children and youth in Turkey/Greece/Cyprus strategies of most of today’s popular children’s both intense cultural richness and tensions. And the literary/cultural products. The lure of Alice in Won- • translation/transmediation of children’s/YA current effects of globalization make this richness • Examining culture-specifc poetological questions derland, Harry Potter, or the Moomins is consider- literature as a negotiation process (between and tension even more intense. For Arjun Appadurai, in one or more of these countries ably enhanced by the plethora of interconnected publisher demands, parental expectations, social the central characteristic of global cultural processes media platforms – novel, flm, animation, computer norms, children’s cognitive abilities, emotional is “the mutual effort of sameness and difference to • Looking at the formation and development of various game, fanfction, cosplay, collectibles, etc – all of needs, and imaginative worlds) cannibalize one another.” Children’s literature plays children’s literature genres within and across cultures which maximize audience engagement by unfold- an active part in the tensions between sameness and and linguistic areas ing an increasingly elaborate fctional reality. The • importing and exporting children’s literature and difference, the local and the global, the national and way in which each media “adds a new cultural layer, culture through translation and transmediation: global the transnational. Comparative approaches could • Looking metacritically at culture-specifc aspects of supporting more diverse ways of communicating, challenges, glocal specifcities, East meets West explore the children’s literature production, fow, and the study of children’s literature and the manners in thinking, feeling, and creating than existed before” interaction within the Cyprus-Greece-Turkey triangle which it is institutionally established in one, two, or (Jenkins, Clinton, McWilliams) resonates with how • interfacing the ethics, politics, and aesthetics of in order to analyze relevant literary products, phenom- all three countries translation as an inventive “act of both inter-cultural translation and transmediation ena, and processes. The “East meets West” special and inter-temporal communication” (Bassnett) allows issue aspires to include articles that reach for ideas, • Using general theories of children’s literature to us to see in different ways the original text that • mediators’ changing the image/voice of the child connections, infuences, and comparisons within and study comparative aspects of works from Greece/ always already “bears in itself all possible translations reader across national and continental boundaries, grouping Cyprus/Turkey and gets richer with each additional reading-rewrit- diverse books together, bringing them into a construc- ing,” as Walter Benjamin put it.Topics for papers • metatextual and metamedial self-refectivity in the tive dialogue with each other, exploring their cultural might include, but are not limited to: service of audience engagement backgrounds and webs of relations, and highlighting Full papers should be submitted to the editor, Björn the richness of diversity. Sundmark ([email protected]), and guest editor, • de/reconstructing fctional realities and expanding Full papers should be submitted to the editor, Björn Petros Panaou ([email protected]) by 1 February. storyworlds through media/language change Sundmark ([email protected]), and guest editor, • Exploring forms of cultural exchange between Please see Bookbird’s website at www.ibby.org/book- Anna Kérchy ([email protected]) by 1 November. literatures, languages, and cultures, in books bird for full submission details. • domestication and foreignization as strategies of Please see Bookbird’s website at www.ibby.org/book- published for children and youth, in Greece/ translating/transmediating children’s literature bird for full submission details. Cyprus/Turkey

• Looking at retellings, parodies, cross-cultural references, simple and complex forms of inter- action between literature from different languages and cultures

BOOKBIRD 70 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 71 55.3–2017 Those with Subscribe today professional interests in children’s literature or you may miss need Bookbird! something you Kimberley Reynolds, Professor of Children’s Literature should have read! University of Newcastle, UK

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