#WorldKidLit Month Focus on Japan: Rainy Weather From All Angles

Today's post comes to you from Deborah Iwabuchi: When it comes to weather, Japanese children’s books contain lots of it. Today, I present three books on rain that have been translated into English.  While each book is structured around a day full of precipitation—pre-rain, rain, and post-rain—the actual stories are completely different. Every Color of … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Month Focus on Japan: Rainy Weather From All Angles

#WorldKidLit Month: Books from Japan for the Youngest Readers

Today’s post comes to you from Susan E. Jones: A wide range of books from Japan for the youngest readers are waiting to be discovered. Baby and toddler books, especially interactive board books with pop-ups, sliding panels, and manipulative features, entice Japan’s youngest readers into the literary world. While toddler-level picture books may be outnumbered … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Month: Books from Japan for the Youngest Readers

#WorldKidLit Month: Focus on Japan

Welcome to the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative (GLLI) Focus on Japan month! We are author Holly Thompson and Japanese-to-English translator Avery Fischer Udagawa. In tandem with #WorldKidLitMonth, for the month of September, we’ll be sharing posts highlighting favorite Japan books for young people in English translation.  We’ll open with board books for the very … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Month: Focus on Japan

#WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Little House That Needed a Witch

A picturesque two story house with chicken legs walks with a blue sky and green/yellow grass

"Deep in the forest sat a little house. The witch who lived in the house was very old. She was so old even her wrinkles were wrinkled. But one day she went for a walk and never returned.” So starts The Little House That Needed a Witch, a whimsically charming picture book for readers age … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Little House That Needed a Witch

#WorldKidLit: IBBY & GLLI

Last week the 40th IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Congress was hosted by IBBY Canada in Ottawa, Canada, with 500+ attendees from 60 countries in attendance. The theme was "Listening to Each Other's Voices" -- and it was echoed across all the sessions, with a special focus on Indigenous and endangered languages … Continue reading #WorldKidLit: IBBY & GLLI

#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Marvellous Mammals

First published in Singapore in 2021, the picture book Marvellous Mammals is now available worldwide and a valuable resource for learning about the geography and wildlife of Southeast Asia. Each letter in English corresponds to the name of a mammal that lives in the region (though the author is helped by the fact that the mammals go … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Marvellous Mammals

#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Dante’s Inferno: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Whether it's your cup of tea or not, horror is having a moment. While not generally considered a horror story per se, Dante's Inferno is, in fact, one of the early masterpieces of the genre, right up there with the much older Greek myth of Oedipus Rex and the more recent Frankenstein and The Tell-Tale … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Dante’s Inferno: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Congratulations to the 2026 GLLI Translated Young Adult Book Prize Winner & Honor Books (& Wrap-up to #IntlYALitMonth)

This is the 8th year of the GLLI Translated YA Book Prize, which recognizes publishers, translators, and authors of books in English translation for young adult readers, aged 12 through 18 inclusive. (See the prize criteria here and submission guidelines here.) Twenty-two books in eight languages, published within the past three years, were submitted for this cycle and a … Continue reading Congratulations to the 2026 GLLI Translated Young Adult Book Prize Winner & Honor Books (& Wrap-up to #IntlYALitMonth)

#WorldKidLit: Hmong

Wednesdays are reserved for #WorldKidLit posts, and today's will do double-duty as both #WorldKidLit and #IntYALitMonth. Vicky Lyfoung's recently published "Hmong: A Graphic History," translated from French by Kao-Ly Yang (2026), is an accessible account of the long and complex history of the Hmong people, now strewn around the world. She starts with her own … Continue reading #WorldKidLit: Hmong

Welcome to GLLI’s 2026 #IntlYALitMonth

It’s May – and time for the 6th annual International Young Adult Literature Month (#IntlYALitMonth) here on the Global Literature in Libraries (GLLI) blog. Just in case you missed the previous ones, below are links to the end-of-month summary list of each year’s offerings. 2021 – wrap-up blog post by editor Elisa A. Garcia 2022 … Continue reading Welcome to GLLI’s 2026 #IntlYALitMonth