Mildred L. Batchelder Award Books

The Mildred L. Batchelder Award is named for a former executive director of the Association for Library Service to Children who spent thirty years at the American Library Association working, in ALSC's own phrase, as an ambassador on behalf of children and books — arguing that American children should be able to read what children elsewhere grow up on. The award was established in 1966 and first presented in 1968; since 1979 it has been given annually, unless no book merits it in a given year, to an American publisher for the most outstanding children's book originally published abroad in a language other than English and subsequently translated into English for U.S. publication.

It is the rare award that goes to the publisher rather than the author or translator, aimed squarely at the part of the pipeline that decides whether a book crosses over at all. Judging weighs the quality of the translation, fidelity to the original, and whether the book still works for a child reader. The practical use is finding middle-grade and young adult fiction that does not sound like American middle-grade fiction — different settings, different pacing, different humor — and because it is roughly one title a year plus honors, the full list can be read through end to end.

Information from the American Library Association.