The latest issue of  Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature arrived last week. It is vol. 56. No. 1.  The journal has a regular feature called Translators and Their Books.  This issue includes an article called “I am a Translator, a Transmitter of Culture” by Anna Becchi.  The author is a translator from German, Dutch and English into Italian.  She also scouts for Italian publishers. She is a literary agent for German publishers for children.

In this article Becchi speaks to the role of translators as cultural mediators.  She presents a discussion about the decision to domesticate a text.  She indicates that changing the name of a character in a children’s book is dependent on the age of the reader. In summary, she suggests that globalization has had a “paradoxical outcome” in the field of children’s books.

Bookbird also features other articles on translations and reviews books from publishers around the world.

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