To entice students to broaden their reading horizons and check out the wide array of books in translation, World Kid Lit Month, the annual September celebration of international children’s literature, is commemorating its ninth year with the debut of the World Kid Lit Reading Challenge Award. The global initiative is open to any English-speaking schools in which students and educators read translated works and develop creative presentations that reflect their impressions on their completed reading. As part of the prize packs, three schools will be awarded age-specific book bundles of 10 international books from sponsor publishers. Each bundle features works from authors in 10 countries on five continents.
A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi
Since the launch of World Kid Lit Month eight years ago and last year’s expansion as a community interest company, organizers have seen a surge in the number of international readers engaging on social media and recommending translated books to a robust community of followers. “But it is generally adults,” said Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, a longtime translator and managing director of World Kid Lit, “and we’ve had relatively little evidence of these globally inclusive books that we’re so passionate about actually reaching young people and making it onto school reading lists, library shelves, and English literature curricula.”
The continued overall decline in reading for pleasure, coupled by a rise in book banning, inspired World Kid Lit to establish a way of recognizing those championing the cause for expanded literary perspectives. “We wanted to create an award that incentivizes curious reading and encourages teachers and librarians to look beyond the U.S., U.K., and Australia for new book purchases, and to plan reading projects that reflect the rich diversity of school populations, languages spoken, and the cultural connections within our communities,” Kemp said.
Judges for the inaugural Reading Challenge Award competition include Nanette McGuinness, a U.S. literary translator and opera singer; Josephine Murray, a literary translator, writer, and former languages teacher in the U.K.; Leila Rasheed, a U.K.-based author and founder of Megaphone Writers, a professional development organization for children’s book authors of color in the U.K.; and Avery Fischer Udagawa, a literary translator and Thailand-based teacher.
The goal of the Reading Challenge Award is to generate more interest in “reading the world,” a concept that Kemp hopes will catch on with more families. She cites the Kids Read the World blog, started by Lori Sieling, an American mother, educator, and picture book enthusiast whose family has read books from 115 countries over the past five years. “I’m surprised not to see more families doing it as a Bookstagram reading project or more schools doing it as a class project,” Kemp said. “We hope this award will prompt more cascading of this knowledge of how to find books from other countries and how to run this kind of reading project.”
For more information on how to participate, click here. Entries are open through October 10.
