Mildred L. Batchelder Award Explained

Mildred L. Batchelder Award
Awarded For:	"the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States"
Presenter:	Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association
Country:	United States
Year:	1968

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award, or Batchelder Award, is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognizes the publisher of the year's "most outstanding" children's book translated into English and published in the U.S.

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award is unusual in that it is given to a publisher yet it explicitly references a given work, its translator and author. It seeks to recognize translations of children's books into the English language, with the intention of encouraging American publishers to translate high quality foreign language children's books and "promote communication between the people of the world".

It is administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), the children's division of ALA, and conferred upon the U.S. publisher.

The award is named in honor of Mildred L. Batchelder, former director of the ALSC. One of her stated goals was "to eliminate barriers to understanding between people of different cultures, races, nations, and languages."

The Batchelder Award was inaugurated in 1968 and there have been 47 winners in 48 years through 2015.

From 1994 there have been 38 worthy runners-up called Honor Books, one to three each year.

The 2015 winner is Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, an imprint of William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., for Mikis and the Donkey, translated by Laura Watkinson. The Dutch original Mikis, de Ezeljongen (2011) was written by Bibi Dumon Tak, illustrated by Philip Hopman.

Mildred L. Batchelder

Batchelder began her career working in an Omaha, Nebraska Public Library, then as a children's librarian at St. Cloud State Teachers College, and subsequently as librarian of Haven Elementary School in Evanston, Illinois. She eventually joined the ranks of the American Library Association in 1936 spending the next 30 years at the ALA promoting the translation of children's literature.

Criteria

Source: "Batchelder Award terms and criteria"

The award shall be made to an American publisher for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country and subsequently published in English in the United States during the preceding year.
The Award, in the form of a citation, shall be made annually, unless no book of that particular year is deemed worthy of the honor. The translation should be true to original work and retain the viewpoint of the author.
The translation should reflect the style of the author and of the original language.
The book should not be unduly "Americanized." The book's reader should be able to sense that the book came from another country.
Folk literature is not eligible.
Picture books are not eligible unless the text is substantial and at least as important as the pictures.
The book must have the potential to appeal to a child audience (age 0-14).
The overall design of the book should enhance and not detract from the text, thus making the book more or less effective as a children's book. Such aspects might include: illustration, type face, layout, book jacket, etc.
Consideration should be given to the retention of the original illustrator's work in the U.S. edition.

Recipients

Winners are distinguished from Honor Books by yellow background and by 'W' in the far right column.

Batchelder Award winners and runners-up
Year.	Awarded Publisher	Title	Author	Translator	Language	Result
1968	Alfred A. Knopf				German	W
1969	Charles Scribner's Sons	*Don't Take Teddy*			Norwegian	W
1970	Holt, Rinehart & Winston	*Wildcat Under Glass*			Greek	W
1971	Pantheon Books	*In the Land of Ur, the Discovery of Ancient Mesopotamia*			German	W
1972	Holt, Rinehart & Winston	*Friedrich*			German	W
1973	William Morrow	*Pulga*			Dutch	W
1974	E. P. Dutton	*Petros' War*			Greek	W
1975	Crown Publishing Group				Russian	W
1976	Henry Z. Walck				German	W
1977	Atheneum Press				Danish	W
1978	(no award)
1979	Harcourt Brace Jovanovich	*Rabbit Island*			German	W
1979	Franklin Watts / Scholastic	*Konrad*			German	W
1980	E. P. Dutton				Greek	W
1981	William Morrow				Dutch	W
1982	Bradbury Press				Swedish	W
1983	Lothrop, Lee & Shepard	*Hiroshima No Pika*		Kurita-Bando Literary Agency	Japanese	W
1984	Viking Press	*Ronia the Robber's Daughter*			Swedish	W
1985	Houghton Mifflin				Hebrew	W
1986	Creative Education	*Rose Blanche*			Italian	W
1987	Lothrop, Lee & Shepard	*No Hero for the Kaiser*			German	W
1988	McElderry Books	*If You Didn't Have Me*			Swedish	W
1989	Lothrop, Lee & Shepard	*Crutches*			German	W
1990	E. P. Dutton	*Buster's World*			Danish	W
1991	E. P. Dutton				German	W
1992	Houghton Mifflin				Hebrew	W
1993	(no award)
1994	Farrar, Straus and Giroux				Spanish	W
	Farrar, Straus and Giroux				Dutch	hon
	Viking Press	Anne Frank Beyond the Diary: A Photographic Remembrance			Dutch	hon
1995	E.P. Dutton				Danish	W
1995	Lothrop, Lee & Shepard	Sister Shako and Kolo the Goat: Memories of My Childhood in Turkey			Turkish	hon
1996	Houghton Mifflin				Hebrew	W
	Henry Holt & Co	Damned Strong Love: The True Story of Willi G. And Stephan K.			German	hon
	Walker and Company	Star of Fear, Star of Hope			French	hon
1997	Farrar, Straus and Giroux				Japanese	W
1998	Henry Holt & Co				German	W
	Scholastic Press	Hostage to War: a True Story			German	hon
	Viking Press	Nero Corleone: a Cat's Story			German	hon
1999		*Thanks to My Mother*			German	W
1999	Viking Press	Secret Letters from 0 to 10			French	hon
2000	Walker and Company				Dutch	W
	Farrar, Straus and Giroux	Collector of Moments			German	hon
	Rabén & Sjögren	Vendela in Venice			Swedish	hon
	Front Street	Asphalt Angels			Dutch	hon
2001	Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic	*Samir and Yonatan*			Hebrew	W
2001	David R. Godine	Ultimate Game			French	hon
2002	Cricket Books / Carus Publishing	*How I Became an American*			German	W
2002	Viking Press				French	hon
2003	The Chicken House / Scholastic				German	W
2003	David R. Godine	Henrietta and the Golden Eggs			German	hon
2004	Walter Lorraine Books (Houghton Mifflin)	*Run, Boy, Run*			Hebrew	W
2004	Chronicle Books				Swedish	hon
2005	Delacorte Press / Dell				French	W
	Farrar, Straus and Giroux				Danish	hon
	Atheneum Books (Richard Jackson Bks)	Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi			German	hon
2006	Arthur A. Levine Books				German	W
	Phaidon Press	Nicholas			French	hon
	Bloomsbury Children’s Books	When I Was a Soldier			French	hon
2007	Delacorte Press / Dell				French	W
	Delacorte Press / Dell				French	hon
	Hyperion / Miramax				Italian	hon
2008	VIZ Media	*Brave Story*			Japanese	W
	Milkweed Editions				German	hon
	Phaidon Press	Nicholas and the Gang			French	hon
2009	Arthur A. Levine Books				Japanese	W
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	Garmann's Summer			Norwegian	hon
	Amulet Books	Tiger Moon			German	hon
2010	Delacorte Press / Dell				Swedish	W
	Farrar, Straus and Giroux	Eidi			Danish	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	Big Wolf and Little Wolf			French	hon
	Arthur A. Levine Books				Japanese	hon
2011 ^[1]	Delacorte Press / Dell				French	W
	namelos	Departure Time			Dutch	hon
	Atheneum Books	Nothing			Danish	hon
2012 ^[2]	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	*Soldier Bear*			Dutch	W
2012 ^[2]	Delacorte Press / Dell				Swedish	hon
2013	Dial Books	*My Family for the War*			German	W
	Graphic Universe				French	hon
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	Son of a Gun			Dutch	hon
2014	Enchanted Lion Books	*Mister Orange*			Dutch	W
	Enchanted Lion Books				French	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	My Father's Arms Are a Boat			Norwegian	hon
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers				Dutch	hon
2015	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	*Mikis and the Donkey*			Dutch	W
	Roaring Brook Press (First Second Books)	Hidden: A Child's Story of the Holocaust			French	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	Nine Open Arms			Dutch	hon
2016	Enchanted Lion Books				French	W
	Seven Stories Press	Adam and Thomas			Hebrew	hon
	NorthSouth Books	Grandma Lives in a Perfume Village			Chinese	hon
	TOON Books (Candlewick Press)	Written and Drawn by Henrietta			Spanish	hon
2017	Enchanted Lion Books	*Cry, Heart, But Never Break*			Danish	W
	NorthSouth Books	As Time Went By			German	hon
	Margaret K. McElderry Books				Norwegian	hon
	Chronicle Books	Over the Ocean			Japanese	hon
2018	Delacorte Press / Dell				Swedish	W
	Charlesbridge	Malala: Activist for Girls' Education			French	hon
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	When a Wolf is Hungry			French	hon
	Elsewhere Editions	You Can't Be Too Careful				Portuguese	hon
2019	Thames & Hudson			Translation Bureau	Lithuanian	W
	Yonder	Run for Your Life			Italian	hon
	Graphic Universe	My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder			French	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	Jerome by Heart			French	hon
2020	Enchanted Lion Books	*Brown*			Norwegian	W
	Godwin Books/Henry Holt				Japanese	hon
	Atheneum Books				Italian	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	Do Fish Sleep?			German	hon
	Plough Publishing House	When Spring Comes to the DMZ'	Lee Uk-bae	Lee Uk-bae	Korean	hon
2021	Enchanted Lion Books	*Telephone Tales*	, illustrated by Valerio Vidali		Italian	W
2021	HarperCollins	Catherine's War	, illustrated by		French	hon
2022	Restless Books	*Temple Alley Summer*	, illustrated by		Japanese	W
	Enchanted Lion Books	Coffee, Rabbit, Snowdrop, Lost	, illustrated by Margrethe Kjaergaard		Danish	hon
	Elsewhere Editions		, illustrated by Nooshin Safakhoo		Persian/Farsi	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books		, illustrated by Øyvind Torseter		Norwegian	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	Sato the Rabbit (Book 1)			Japanese	hon
	Levine Querido		, illustrated by	David Bowles	Spanish	hon
2023^[3]	HarperCollins	*Just a Girl: A True Story of World War II*	, illustrated by Jess Mason		Italian	W
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers		, illustrated by Eva Sánchez Gómez		Spanish	hon
	Candlewick Press				Chinese	hon
	Levine Querido				Portuguese	hon
2024 ^[4]	Amulet Books	*Houses with a Story: A Dragon’s Den, a Ghostly Mansion, a Library of Lost Books, and 30 More Amazing Places to Explore*			Japanese	W
	Yonder		, illustrated by Yukiko Saito		Japanese	hon
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	Later, When I’m Big	, illustrated by		Dutch	hon
	Levine Querido	Pardalita			Portuguese	hon

Multiple awards and honors

E. P. Dutton and Enchanted Lion Books have won five Batchelder Awards, Delacorte Press (Dell) four. Several imprints have won three: Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic); Lothrop, Lee & Shepard (HarperCollins); Houghton Mifflin.

Anthea Bell's translations from Danish, French and German have won seven mentions, four Awards and three Honors. Hillel Halkin's translations from Hebrew have four awards. Translations from Greek by Edward Fenton have won three, as have translations from Dutch by Laura Watkinson. Several people have translated two Award winners.

Uri Orlev writing in Hebrew and Alki Zei writing in Greek were the authors of four and three Award-winning works, all of those translated by Halkin and Fenton respectively. Bjarne Reuter wrote two of the winners in Danish, Bibi Dumon Tak two in Dutch, and Josef Holub two in German.

Numbers of Awards and Honors by original language

(56)	(66)	(1968–2023)
Awd	Hon	Language
15	10	German
6	8	Dutch
6	5	Japanese
5	3	Swedish
5	1	Hebrew
4	17	French
4	4	Danish
3	3	Italian
3	0	Greek
2	4	Norwegian
1	3	Spanish
1	0	Russian
1	0	Lithuanian
0	3	Portuguese
0	2	Chinese
0	1	Turkish
0	1	Korean
0	1	Persian/Farsi

External links

Front Street imprint book search at Boyds Mill Press
Enchanted Lion Books publisher
namelos publisher

Notes and References

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/ala/2011-batchelder-award-honors-delacorte-press-time-miracles "2011 Batchelder Award honors Delacorte Press for A Time of Miracles"
Web site: 2012 Batchelder Award honors Eerdmans Books for Young Readers for Soldier Bear . American Library Association . January 23, 2012 . July 16, 2022.
Web site: 2023 Batchelder Award honors HarperCollins for 'Just a Girl: A True Story of World War II' . 30 January 2023 .
Web site: American Library Association announces 2024 Youth Media Award winners . American Library Association . 22 January 2024.