53. A Cross-Cultural Conversation Between Two Master Storytellers at the 2017 USBBY Conference

By Minjie Chen and David Jacobson

The 12th United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) Regional Conference was held in Seattle, Washington October 20-22, 2017. The theme of the conference was “Radical Change Beyond Borders: The Transforming Power of Children’s Literature in a Digital Age.” For the first time, a speaker from China—author Cao Wenxuan曹文轩—was invited to deliver the biennial Dorothy Briley Memorial Lecture at the USBBY Regional Conference. USBBY is one of the national sections of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), the organization that gives the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Awards and selected Cao as the winning author in 2016.

52. List of Chinese-Themed Books for Kids and Teens – by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre, in Toronto, offers a selection of helpful themed lists of books on its website (thank you, CCBC!) including a List of Chinese-Themed Books for Kids and Teens (look under Resources). These books were published between 1989 and 2013, suggesting that the list was compiled in 2013/2014. If you can add any titles to this list, please leave a comment below.

51. David Jacobson’s survey of translations of children’s and YA Literature translated from Chinese, Japanese and Korean

David Jacobson, editorial consultant at Chin Music Press, and author of Are You an Echo?: The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko, contacted us recently, asking if there are any lists of children’s and YA books translated from Chinese into English. He wanted to do a survey of translations from Chinese, Japanese and Korean in preparation for the 12th IBBY Regional Conference, at the University of Washington, Seattle, 19-22 October 2017. He will be on the panel “Asian American Experiences in Children’s Books” (Panel presentation: David Jacobson, Uma Krishnaswami, Philip Lee, Linda Sue Park).

50. 12 Books for the Holidays

Earlier this week, Tomorrow Publishing House (Tiantian chubanshe 天天出版社) posted a piece recommending some good reads for children during this holiday week in China. If you need a rest from National Day, moon-gazing, mooncakes and so on, try these:

49. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2017

Meng Yanan’s picture book Happy Mid-Autumn Festival  (孟亚楠：《中秋节快乐》) won the gold prize in the 2016 Bronze and Sunflower Picture Book Awards 青铜葵花图画书奖. Congratulations to Meng Yanan, and Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone!