Mildred L. Batchelder Award facts for kids

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award, often called the Batchelder Award, is a special prize given each year by the American Library Association. It celebrates the best children's book that was first published in another country, in a different language, and then translated into English and released in the United States.

This award is unique because it's given to the publisher of the book. However, it also highlights the specific book, its author, and the person who translated it. The main goal of the Batchelder Award is to encourage American publishers to bring more excellent foreign children's books to English-speaking readers. This helps people from different parts of the world understand each other better through stories.

The award is managed by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). This group is a part of the American Library Association and focuses on children's books and services.

The award is named after Mildred L. Batchelder. She used to be the director of the ALSC. Mildred believed strongly in breaking down barriers between people. She wanted to help people from different cultures, races, nations, and languages connect.

The Batchelder Award started in 1968. By 2015, there had been 47 winners over 48 years. Since 1994, many other great books have been recognized as "Honor Books." Each year, one to three books receive this special mention.

For example, the 2015 winner was Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. They won for the book Mikis and the Donkey. This book was translated by Laura Watkinson. The original book, Mikis, de Ezeljongen (published in 2011), was written in Dutch by Bibi Dumon Tak and illustrated by Philip Hopman.

About Mildred L. Batchelder

Mildred L. Batchelder started her career working in a Public Library in Omaha, Nebraska. Later, she became a children's librarian at St. Cloud State Teachers College. She also worked as a librarian at Haven Elementary School in Evanston, Illinois.

In 1936, she joined the American Library Association (ALA). For the next 30 years, Mildred worked hard at the ALA. She focused on promoting the translation of children's books from other languages.

How Books Are Chosen

The Batchelder Award has specific rules for choosing winners. Here are some of the main points:

• The award goes to an American publisher. It's for a children's book that was first published in a foreign language in another country. Then, it must have been translated into English and published in the U.S. during the previous year.
• The award is given every year. However, if no book is considered good enough, it might not be given.
• The English translation should be very close to the original book. It should keep the author's original ideas and feelings.
• The translation should also match the author's writing style and the feel of the original language.
• The book should not be changed too much to fit American culture. Readers should still feel like the story comes from another country.
• Traditional folk tales are not eligible for this award.
• Picture books can only win if the words are very important. The text must be as important as the pictures, or even more so.
• The book must be interesting to children aged 0 to 14.
• The overall look of the book, like the illustrations, font, and cover, should make the story better. It should help make it a great children's book.
• Judges also consider if the original artist's illustrations were kept in the American version of the book.

Award Winners and Honor Books

The table below shows the books that have won the Batchelder Award and those that received an Honor Book mention. Winners are highlighted in yellow.

Award Highlights

Some publishers and translators have won many awards and honors.

• E. P. Dutton and Enchanted Lion Books have each won the Batchelder Award five times.
• Delacorte Press (Dell) has won four times.
• Other publishers like Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic), Lothrop, Lee & Shepard (HarperCollins), and Houghton Mifflin have won three times.

Translators are also very important.

• Anthea Bell has translated seven books that received mentions. Four of these were Award winners, and three were Honor Books. She translated from Danish, French, and German.
• Hillel Halkin has four awards for his translations from Hebrew.
• Edward Fenton's translations from Greek have won three awards.
• Laura Watkinson has also won three awards for her translations from Dutch.

Some authors have had multiple books recognized.

• Uri Orlev, who writes in Hebrew, has had four of his books win the award. All of these were translated by Hillel Halkin.
• Alki Zei, who writes in Greek, has had three of her books win. Edward Fenton translated all of them.
• Bjarne Reuter wrote two of the winning books in Danish.
• Bibi Dumon Tak wrote two winners in Dutch.
• Josef Holub wrote two winners in German.

Here's a look at how many awards and honors books from different original languages have received: