Okchundang Candy 옥춘당 by Jung-soon Go 고정순Translated from Korean by Aerin ParkLevine Querido, March 2025 “I still remember that house filled with summer lingering.” As the story opens, the narrator leads us back into the summers she spent with her grandparents, Mr. Go Jadong and Ms. Kim Soonim. Words rendered in crayon carry a handlettered … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Okchundang Candy
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Big Tournament
Take a cooking competition in graphic novel format and mix in zany illustrations, alien species and an intergalactic empire. Blend in a reluctant, kindhearted female heroine, top it all off with eco-, exoplanetary, and class politics, and you get The Big Tournament, the first book in the fabulous upper middle grade/YA sci-fi series, Magda: Intergalactic … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Big Tournament
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Born a Girl: It Takes Courage
Equal parts Our Bodies, Ourselves, Margaret Mead, and biology/history explainer, Born a Girl: It Takes Courage is an approachable feminist manifesto for today's teens that embraces difficult topics. Organized around the fictionalized stories of five teenage girls---one each from Nepal, France, Afghanistan, Kenya, and Mexico---this nonfiction YA illustrated book lays out a frank, sympathetic description … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Born a Girl: It Takes Courage
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Four Eisner- Nominated Graphic Novels in Translation
It’s that time of year again--or at least it was when I wrote this post: San Diego Comic Con! For those who may not know, San Diego Comic Con is a huge four-and-a-half day lollapalooza of an annual convention celebrating all things comics related. There are panels with authors and actors; talks about art, craft, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Four Eisner- Nominated Graphic Novels in Translation
#WITMONTH 2025: International Women of Mystery
Our next post is a conversation between educators about a specialized book club in Portland, Maine, USA. They discuss book club title selection, favorite international mysteries, and the problems with "translation" in a beloved series. Enjoy! - Rebecca Starr My name is Lynn Lawrence-Brown, and I am a Taiwanese-American teacher librarian working at Shrewsbury International … Continue reading #WITMONTH 2025: International Women of Mystery
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Who Ate the Little Bug?
A playful read-aloud board book for readers age 0-3, Who Ate the Little Bug? is filled with vivid colors and a tactile design of concentric die-cut circles that will entice very young readers into touching and engaging with its text. The concept is simple. Each page introduces an animal that MIGHT have eaten the little … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Who Ate the Little Bug?
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: ashimpa: the mysterious word
A deliciously absurd grammatical romp of a picture book, ashimpa: the mysterious word begins when a researcher rediscovered a long-lost word that has resurfaced "by chance in a dusty old dictionary: ASHIMPA. Quickly, the news spread. Everyone wanted to use this exciting discovery—but no one knew exactly how. No one knew what the word meant, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: ashimpa: the mysterious word
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Snowglobe
A 2025 GLLI Translated Young Adult Book Prize Honor Book and the first fabulous volume in a sci-fi duology, Snowglobe is set in a post-apocalyptic, post-climate-change world. Life for the lower class is cold and brutal. Most labor daily to create electricity via giant human-powered hamster wheels, except for the lucky few who live in … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Snowglobe
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Three Nonfiction Books in Translation
I recently encountered three fascinating nonfiction books in translation from the Czech Republic: two for middle grade readers and the third for slightly younger readers ages 6-9. These fun volumes are virtually guaranteed entice readers into cracking open the cover and immersing themselves in a world filled with blurbs and facts. There isn't too much, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Three Nonfiction Books in Translation
#INTYALITMONTH: Graphic Novels of Displacement
Written by Angela Erickson Those of us who work or live in a world of books know that perhaps the richest terrain for graphic novelists is memoir and biography. As I type this, I can picture the covers of Maus, Persepolis, and Dragon Hoops -- some of the graphic memoirs that I regularly press into … Continue reading #INTYALITMONTH: Graphic Novels of Displacement
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 