Van Coillie Jan, Verschueren Walter P. (eds.) Children's Literature in Translation: Challenges and Strategies

Manchester: St. Jerome, 2006. — 190 p.Covering a wide range of topics of interest to researchers of children's literature translation - although somewhat European-focused - this collection presents a valuable contribution to this growing field. The eleven articles cover issues such as the dual audience in children's literature, child(hood) images, censorship and the influence of pedagogical values, drawing upon theoretical frameworks such as Even-Zohar's polysystem theory, Toury's notion of norms and Venuti's discussion of foreignization/domestication and invisibility. Five articles focus on the translations of selected texts, authors and/or genres: Joosen and Pascua-Febles discuss the challenges of translating specific adolescent novels, González-Cascallana focuses on British fantasy fiction and the issue of a dual audience is investigated in Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Rudvin and Orlati and in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales by Øster. Other topics include the status of children's literature and its translation in former Eastern Germany (Thomson-Wohlgemut), the translation of character names (van Coillie) and the discussion of the translators' aims and attitudes revealed in prefaces (Lathey). Desmidt presents an attempt to apply Chesterman's prototypical approach to children's literature, Ghesquiere questions whether translation of children's literature is always needed and Oittinen illustrates some of the prevailing ethical issues in the translation of children's literature.