Bridge to Cultural Understanding

Children's Books Translated into English, 1990-2003

Abstract

This longitudinal study on recommended children's books translated into English and published in the United States between 1990-2003 allowed the researchers to identify trends in translations based on language, genre and subject. The most frequent language of translation was German, followed by French and Swedish. Animal Personification was the most popular genre, followed by Realistic Fiction and Information books. A majority of the translated children's books were in the picture book format, primarily from the Animal Personification genre. Popular subject headings included Animals (specific)-Fiction, Fairy Tales/Folklore, Family Relationships-Fiction and Friendship-Fiction, much the same as in the United States.