Children’s books no longer lost in translation…

I stumbled across a really interesting independent publisher in a bookshop the other day, Gecko Press.

I subsequently hopped on their website, and became a Friend of Gecko Press, receiving a lovely hand-written postcard in the mail!

With the mission to publish ‘curiously good children’s books from around the world’, Gecko was established by New Zealander Julia Marshall who returned home after living in Sweden for 12 years. Gecko Press aims to corner an underexplored niche of publishing international children’s authors for the first time in English. While in European countries, some 40 per cent of books are published in translation, only 3 per cent of books in the UK originated in another language. (And the percentage would be comparable in Australia and NZ…) There is a great sense of diversity that can come from reading books from other cultures, and I agree there is some room for more quality international authors to be published in English.

Gecko Press authors hale from Taiwan, Sweden, Germany and many other countries. A couple of my favourites are:

Donkeys (Adelheid Dahimene and Heide Stollinger)

This is the tale of two donkeys, Jack and Jenny, who are planning their silver wedding anniversary. They have exactly the personalities you’d imagine of donkeys – a bit cantankerous and very stubborn. But they are a perfect fit, right down to their bodies, worn from countless hugs – Jenny has a hollow on her neck and Jack has a bump in the very same place. When Jack forgets the anniversary, Jenny leaves in a huff, and both donkeys try to find another match. With illustrations in hues of gray and brown, this isn’t a picture book that would hold the attention of most littlies, but it would certainly amuse older kids, not to mention their mums and dads. Very quirky with lots of word-play (I take my hat off to the translator!). Age 4+

I Am the King (Leo Timmers)

I love Leo Timmer’s illustrations, they have such a bold, clean, graphic quality. In this book the animals of the jungle each vie to be king as they take it in turns to try on the crown. But it turns out, of course, that there is more to being king than wearing a hat… The colours in this book jump off the page. Age 1+

Recent successes of the likes of Nicholas bode well for Gecko. Originally published in France in 1956, Nicholas was re-issued in translation to great success by the uber-cool art publisher Phaidon Press in 2005. Written by the well-known Goscinny (author of the Asterix series) and illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist, Jean-Jacques Sempé, the Phaidon translation edition is gorgeous with hardback linen jacket.(I remember reading a small format orange paperback edition of Nicolas as part of our Year 9 French classes…) The story goes that the re-issue by Phaidon happened almost by accident, when the company’s owner, Richard Schlagman, attended the Frankfurt Book Fair with the intention of acquiring some rights to a book about English artists from a French publisher Denoël. But apparently his eye kept wandering to some images at the back of the booth. They were Sempé drawings, and though Mr. Schlagman barely knew who the artist was, he wound up making an offer for virtually his life’s work.

Phaidon have also published the gorgeous Martin Pebble, also by Sempé, about a childhood friendship between a boy who can’t stop blushing and a boy who can’t stop sneezing… Very cute.
This post is reminding me of all my favourite classic children’s books published in translation. Will post about these shortly…