Known as the Oscars of the comics world, the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are traditionally given every summer at San Diego Comic Con. Due to COVID-19, the ceremony was virtual in 2021, when the awards featured 33 categories. Books for children in translation can be found in a number of them. The pickings were … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The 2021 Eisner Award Nominations
Yesterday, we read about the Rohingya of Myanmar, whose story has only recently become well known outside of the region. A far more familiar story of community exile is that of the Tibetans. 60 years after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, up to 100,000 Tibetan Buddhists live in exile in India, mostly in Dharamsala, … Continue reading Literature of Exile: Tibet
If only she would be quiet! Her pullover was already quite damp from the excitement and the screaming, and her face was so dark red that it looked almost violet. His own shirt was wet and sticky at the shoulder from her saliva. He knew his way around children, with infants too. He actually knew … Continue reading Crime Excerpt: First There Was Silence by Leonie Haubrich (Germany)
MAYBE ONE DAY PLASTIC BAGS WILL BE BETTER THAN GULLS It’s as if the buildings are breaking over people. One, two, puke: big chunks, everyone dead. A couple of architects on speed wanted to play Tetris against each other, and then everything got out of hand. Brutal boulders in washed concrete and steel stand around … Continue reading Crime Fiction Excerpt: Mexico Street by Simone Buchholz (Germany)
Did you have a pen pal when you were little? Maybe someone from halfway around the world, whom you’d never seen, from a land you knew nothing about? That’s the premise of Yours Sincerely, Giraffe, a sweet, zany chapter book for ages 6-10, with charming illustrations by award-winning artist Jun Takabatake (Bologna Children’s Book Fair Graphics … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Yours Sincerely, Giraffe
Ruth Wolff-Stirner My mother became sick very quickly. Because of the unhygienic living conditions in Shanghai, her liver became infected and she died at the age of 46. That was in 1954 and I was eight. My father kept me away from her. I didn’t see her anymore after she was taken to the hospital. … Continue reading Excerpt: Going Back by Andrea von Treuenfeld (Germany)
Part 1 The Lighthouse Match An island barely attached to the mainland, like a loose tooth on a thread, is called a peninsula. On this small peninsula, there is a lighthouse, a tall grey one that swings its light at night over the small town by the sea. It stops ships from smashing into the … Continue reading Excerpt: Lampie and the Children of the Sea by Annet Schaap
Chapter 1Goodbye, California “No, No, NO!” Lucy screamed, clapping her ears shut. Her mother pulled Lucy’s hands down and held them tightly. “Sweetheart, please try to understand,” she said. “It’s the perfect opportunity for me to spend a few weeks with Kurt. He called just a little while ago and I had to … Continue reading Excerpt: The Greenest Wind by Gesine Schulz
Devilspel by Grigory Kanovich translated by Yisrael Elliot Cohen Danuta Hadassa Danuta Hadassa no longer remembered how many years had gone by since she found herself living out in the sticks; she had been on the road for years and had intended to put an end to her life in a roadside inn. … Continue reading Excerpt from the new novel Devilspel by Grigory Kanovic
The Indecency Club I didn’t understand what it meant to be a man. If in the past I thought it was enough to have genitals dangling between one’s legs, now I wasn’t so sure. Because Uncle Marcelo’s were like that, but nobody in the village considered him a man. So would the perfect man be … Continue reading GLLI YA Prize Shortlist Excerpt: La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 