In January I finished up my third experience on a national book award committee for children’s books. This time, I read books for the Mildred L. Batchelder Awards, established in 1966 in honor of Mildred L. Batchelder, a librarian who cared deeply about international children’s books.

This award is very, very specific, so bear with me:

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award is awarded to an American publisher for a children’s book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originating in a country other than the United States and in a language other than English and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States during the preceding year.

Detailed, right? The Batchelder is an award for translation and goes to the publisher of the winning work (s). There is one winner and the committee can decide to award honors, or not. According to our award manual, “The purpose of the award is to encourage international exchange of high-quality children’s books by recognizing U.S. publishers of such books in translation.” As we know, publishing is a business, and the hope is that this award encourages U.S. publishers to care more about acquiring world literature.

One thing I struggled with during our year of reading for this award was the fact that there are so many barriers to publishing, and to be eligible for this award, a book must be chosen by a U.S. publisher as “worthy” of translation in the first place. That leaves out a lot of stories & voices. Also, plenty of books from around the world are published in English, because people speak English all over the world. I understand that every award can’t be for every thing, and that this award is for translation, but in some ways, this award perpetuates the idea that an “international” story must be translated from a “foreign” language.

All this being said, it was an immense privilege to get to read so many amazing books from around the world. It was fun to observe different storytelling styles, humor, cultural nuances and illustration techniques from brilliant creators whose work I’d never seen before.

I enjoyed learning from and chatting with my committee members over Zoom and in person at Lib Learn X in Phoenix, AZ. The real gift of serving on a book award committee is the opportunity to listen to other professionals’ thoughts and opinions about books. Sometimes you come out of deliberation with your mind completely changed about a book, or with a new way of thinking about art, or poetry, or non-fiction. You have to be able to read the vibes of the room, and sometimes that means letting a favorite book go. A good committee respects each other while challenging each other. I am so grateful to my committee for the experience. Thank you Marianne, Evan, Brenda and Kate!

Okay now, about the books!

Our winner is John the Skeleton, a picture book from Estonia. This book is quirky, deep, affectionate, and honest. Readers follow Gramps and Grams in the later part of their lives as they adopt a new friend and family member, a retired classroom skeleton named John. The illustrations are so good too, with a use of shocking fluorescent pink ink.

We chose four honor titles:

Johnny, the Sea, and Me is a chapter book from Colombia. In this coming-of-age, magical realism tale, Pedro and his mother visit a Caribbean island, and as Pedro makes a new friend, he learns to believe in his power and strength. The illustrations are delicate and beautiful.

A Sleepless Night is a picture book from Argentina. In this hilarious tale, the entire community comes together to try to get a crying baby to settle down. The concept is just so original and silly, and we loved the bright, colorful marker illustrations.

Home is an informational picture book from France. We fell in love with the quiet complexity of this informational picture book and how lovely the poems and illustrations are. The illustrations are a scratch-art type of style and the poems beautifully tell the story of animal homes around the world.

Mr. Lepron’s Mystery Soup is a picture book from Italy. This is a very anti-capitalist, reflective picture book about a bunny CEO who realizes what life is really about. Intrigued? 🙂 You should be. Not only is this story very refreshing, the art is gorgeous. You’ll root for Mr. Lepron’s spirit while you absorb the delicate watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil illustrations.

If you’d like to read the ALA Press Release for the awards, you can do that here. If you’d like to watch the ALA Youth Media Awards to see all of the many award winners, you can click this link. Finally, World Kid Lit Blog put together a fabulous blog post about these books, with lots of rich, behind-the-scenes interviews.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts about our choices. Leave a comment below. And most importantly, please put in a purchase request for your library system if they don’t already have these books in circulation. Happy reading!