National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 58| August 2002


Bibliographer Researches Australian Children’s Books

Kerry White was awarded a special fellowship of her outstanding work as a bibliographer of Australian children’s literature
Kerry White was awarded a special fellowship for her outstanding work as a bibliographer of Australian children’s literature
There is much media interest and public excitement when Australian films do well overseas but less well known is the spread of Australian children’s books throughout the world.

Contemporary publishing of Australian children’s books is a broad church, a reflection of the diversity of our present society. What is pleasing is how readily the rest of the world embraces books written for our children.

Generations of Scandinavian children have grown up reading Ethel Turner’s Seven Little Australians. A Swedish edition, Sju Syskon, and Danish edition, Syv Søskende, were published in 1895 (only one year after the original) with Finnish and Norwegian editions soon following. The book seems to have been continuously in print in Sweden, the 1991 edition in the publisher’s ‘klassiker’ series. The same countries have had a continuing interest in the Silver Brumby stories by the late Elyne Mitchell. Brumby Racer for example, long out of print here, was reprinted in Swedish for the third time in 1998!

Now translations of John Marsden’s Tomorrow series show a similar popularity in that part of the world. Author publicity notes, ‘[Tomorrow When the War Began] was chosen in Sweden as the book most likely to inspire teenagers to read and over 100 000 copies have been printed for free distribution to young Swedes’. The National Library holdings of multiple Swedish editions of the series indicates Marsden’s success there.

Australian children’s books in translation and English language foreign editions are just one part of the research I carried out during my time as a Fellow at the National Library working on the next volume of Australian Children’s Books: A Bibliography. Indeed it is a small part compared to the great bulk of entries of Australian origin, but perhaps the most appealing. Seeing familiar books reshaped for readers from different cultures is quite thrilling, akin to reading a novel set in a well-known place.

The Library’s collection of foreign editions is impressive. Together with the specialisation in this area of collection by the Lu Rees Archives at the University of Canberra, it means Canberra is one of the few places outside of publishers’ archives where Australian children’s books in translation can be seen in numbers. And what fun that is!

For example, it is possible to assemble from the Library’s Collection different editions of Peter Carey’s children’s book, The Big Bazoohley, for comparison. The first edition is so obviously Australian—in paper binding, inevitably, a reflection of our small market—but with quirky illustrations by talented illustrator David Mackintosh. Oddly, no other edition has used his illustrations, with the United Kingdom and United States of America editions preferring the more painterly (and conservative) illustrations by Abira Ali. The German, Italian and French editions each have a different illustrator and the Spanish goes without. This diversity and the distinct design changes indicate that each publisher is keen to make the book their own as well as seeking to pursue whatever marketing aesthetics pertain at that time in their own patch.

The United States edition (as American hardcover books so often are) is sumptuous. Quarter bound cloth and board, a dust wrapper, end papers—all now rare in Australia for children’s novels. And how does one translate ‘bazoohley’? ‘Bingobang’, ‘Gran Superslam’, ‘Supergordo’ and ‘Le Jackpot’ show translators working hard!

And I like the review quoted in the United States paper edition: ‘this novel is so full of pleasure that readers, along with the characters, receive a swell payoff—start to finish, it’s one Big Bazoohley of a book’.

National Library holdings also reflect the growth in Asian translations. Unassuming treasures include a 1991 Chinese edition of Ruth Park’s children’s adventure novel The Road Under the Sea, which has not appeared in an English edition since 1963, and there are two different full-text Chinese editions of Dot and the Kangaroo—both published in 2000. Korea has discovered our children’s books and has translated almost 100 titles in the last three years and I know the Library is actively seeking these.

I’ve enjoyed the challenge of finding records of these foreign editions at the Library, and elsewhere, for the Bibliography. Also a challenge will be obtaining the various books from all over the world to further enhance the Library’s holdings.
—Kerry White

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