by Emma Mandley

It’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that translating for children is going to be easier than translating for adults: in fact, I’ve usually found the reverse to be true, especially when it comes to non-fiction. Children in different countries reach different stages in their education at different times and it seems to me that in science, for instance, Italian children are expected to have a much greater understanding of complex subjects and related terminology at an earlier age than children in the English-speaking world, at least in those parts that I am familiar with. So I have found it takes sensitive adaptation to make the text accessible in translation – and there’s a lot to be said for the support of a good editor in this respect.

I’ve also been struck by the way Italian non-fiction books for children seem to be very comfortable weaving the humanities into content that is primarily science-related. This is certainly true of the series on clouds, wind and waves that I have recently translated for Thames & Hudson Australia, the first of which – Cloud Atlas – will be available in October.

Cloud Atlas is above all a book designed to help children understand and identify clouds, but it incorporates references to art, literature, history and myth to show how clouds have always been an important part of our cultural experience: we learn about the storm clouds that Ulysses battled on his journey home to Ithaca, about Giotto painting a face in the clouds in a fresco and about John Constable’s skyscapes. We meet a Chinese giant called Pangu who created the cosmos, producing clouds with his last breaths; and Frigg, the goddess of air and clouds in Norse mythology. We are introduced to the work of the animator Hayao Miyazaki, whose films often have set pieces among clouds, and to the experiments conducted by the photographer Berndnaut Smilde, who has developed a machine to make clouds that hover in indoor spaces.

All this fires the imagination in many different directions and will engage the reader in much more than just the science of clouds, but of course Cloud Atlas also contains precise, easily absorbed and clearly illustrated information about clouds: descriptions of all the different varieties, how they form and the history of how we came to understand them.

But that’s not all. The most stand-out aspect of Cloud Atlas – and the whole series – is the glorious artwork by Suzy Zanella. Every cloud type has its own double-page spread with a magnificent skyscape: leafing through the book we discover clouds in all their variety, at all times of day and in all seasons. Their splendour and scale is emphasized by tiny figures and landscapes: two children reading under a tree as the sun sets, a flock of birds flying across a dawn sky, storm clouds and lightning over a rough sea, a little house in a sunny field with cottonwool clouds above… These illustrations lift the series beyond the straightforwardly informational to something almost dreamlike.

Cloud Atlas will appeal to children across a fairly wide age range, not only those who enjoy absorbing information and facts about natural phenomena, but also those who will be intrigued by the variety of associations or just captivated by the immense beauty of the sky as reflected in the illustrations. But I think adults will enjoy it too: it’s a perfect book for children and grown-ups to share – and perhaps do a bit of cloud-spotting together. If my own experience is anything to go by, the book will certainly encourage most readers to see clouds in a different way: now, whenever my eyes drift up towards the sky, I can’t help trying to identify the cloud species above me.

The set will be completed in 2025 with the publication of Wave Atlas and Wind Atlas.

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Cloud Atlas: Everything You Need to Know About Clouds

• by Sarah Zambello (text) and Susy Zanella (illustrations)
• Translated from the Italian by Emma Mandley
• English Translation © Thames and Hudson Australia
• Original title: Nuvolario (2020)
• 79 pages
• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Australia
• ISBN: 9781760764500
• Publication date: Australia release forthcoming, October 2024
• Treat your bookshelf to a taste of Italy! Order the book here.

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“Children’s horizons are expanded when they read translated books, often in ways they will always remember; and they also learn that humanity is a shared experience, whatever the cultural differences between us all.” — Emma Mandley

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