#WorldKidLit Month: Summer Adventures and Goodbyes—Four Japanese Books for Middle Graders

Posted on by Avery Fischer Udagawa

Today’s post comes to you from Sabrina Rossi: If summer feels already like a distant memory, you may want to dive into the following middle grade books, all set in the hot Japanese summer and offering, like a colourful ice cream, flavours for any taste: from historical fiction to magic realism, from short novella to … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Month: Summer Adventures and Goodbyes—Four Japanese Books for Middle Graders

Q&A with Translator Cathy Hirano on “The Beast Player,” by Hans Christian Andersen Award Winner Nahoko Uehashi

Posted on by David Jacobson

May GLLI Blog Series:  Japan in Translation, No. 23 Editor's Note:  Yesterday, we quoted Kirkus' YA Editor Laura Simeon saying that the first piece of translated young adult fiction she had read was Kazumi Yumoto's The Friends (winner of the 1997 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and the 1997 Batchelder Award).  Today we hear … Continue reading Q&A with Translator Cathy Hirano on “The Beast Player,” by Hans Christian Andersen Award Winner Nahoko Uehashi

Examining cultural messages in Japanese picture books — by Kirkus YA Editor Laura Simeon

Posted on by David Jacobson

May GLLI Blog Series:  Japan in Translation, No. 22 Editor's Note:  Soon after Laura Simeon became Kirkus' YA Editor in January, she penned the following appeal for more translated literature: I clearly remember the first YA book in translation I ever read: Kazumi Yumoto’s 2002 title The Letters, translated from the Japanese by Cathy Hirano. … Continue reading Examining cultural messages in Japanese picture books — by Kirkus YA Editor Laura Simeon

Selected Japanese Picture Books — by Andrew Wong

Posted on by David Jacobson

May GLLI Blog Series:  Japan in Translation, No. 18 Picture books anyone? I confess, I don’t remember reading many picture books in my childhood. I recall keeping a prized collection of The Adventures of Tintin and The Adventures of Asterix (eventually given away), but not many other kinds of stories told in pictures. Having missed out of … Continue reading Selected Japanese Picture Books — by Andrew Wong