34. Bronze and Sunflower – now available in the USA and Canada!

The US edition of  Bronze and Sunflower was launched on 14 March 2017, almost two years after the UK edition (2 April 2015). Both editions have the same gorgeous cover art and illustrations by Meilo SO. The UK edition is paperback; the US edition is hardback. There are also two audio books – narrated by Ming-Zhu Hii, and Emily Woo Zeller. 

Here are the UK and US editions side-by-side:

Walker Books, UK, 2015

Candlewick Press, USA, 2017

It’s been quite a journey…

“Emma Lidbury at Walker Books bought world English rights for the Walker Books Group from Peter Buckman at the Ampersand Agency. The book was published in the U.K. in April 2015, and has been released in France, Germany, Italy, and Korea. Hilary Van Dusen will edit the U.S. edition, which will be published in early 2017.”  – Rights Report, Week of April 11, 2016, Publishers Weekly, 12 April 2016 link

Bronze and Sunflower received an EnglishPEN award and a fabulous comment by David Almond!

Then, Cao Wenxuan won the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award. The announcement was made at the Bologna Book Fair on 4 April 2016, and Cao received the award on 20 August in New Zealand. His acceptance speech was titled “Literature: Another Form of Housebuilding” 《文学：另一种造屋》. You can read it here and you can see clips from the event on Youtube here.

On 1 October Tomorrow Publishing House 天天出版社 issued a set of four bilingual (Chinese and English) books by Cao Wenxuan, translated by Helen Wang, with cover art by Zhang Wenqi 张文綺 (aka Vicky Zhang):

•  A Very Special Pigeon  《凤鸽儿》
• The Cassia Tree  《火桂花》
• Huiwa’s Stand  《灰娃的高地》
• Looking for Snowy   《白马雪儿》 (chapters from Cao’s novel Fire Brand 《火印》)

The set of four bilingual books 

On 25 January 2017, Helen Wang won the 2017 Marsh Christian Award for Children’s Literature in Translation, for Bronze and Sunflower.

And on 14 March 2017, the US edition was published by Candlewick Press.

Selection of News and Reviews

• Starred review in Booklist (1 Feb 2017)
• Starred review in Kirkus (1 Jan 2017)
• Starred review in Publisher’s Weekly (19 Dec 2016)
• Helen Wang wins Marsh Award (Jan 2017)
• On “Bronze and Sunflower” in LARB China Blog, 13 April 2016
• Chinese author wins top children’s literature prize – BBC (5 April 2016)
• Review by Ann Morgan – Book of the Month, April 2015
• Review by Nicky Harman in Tribune 6 March 2015
• Reviews on Goodreads
• Reviews on Candlewick website

Interviews with the translator

• Nanette McGuinness, for the SCBWI blog (2 Mar 2017)
• Zoe Toft, Playing by the Book (27 April 2015)
• Eric Abrahamsen, Paper Republic, in English and in Chinese  (13 April 2016)
• Translating Children’s Books – a short piece for Books from Taiwan (2015)
• Avery Fischer Udagawa, for Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Cynsations (26 May 2015)

EXTRA – added since this was first posted:

• Review of the Day: Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan, ill. Meilo So – by Elizabeth Bird, School Library Journal Blog (30 Mar 2017)
• New Release Review: Bronze and Sunflower – by Lory, Emerald City Book Review Blog (2 Apr 2017)
• Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth 2017 – by Julia Smith, Booklist (15 Apr 2017)