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"You are Everyone and You are You:" International Children's Literature

Posted on April 16, 2018

Books published by Les Mots Libres on display at the Bologna Book Fair. Photo courtesy of Denise Muir.

This month, the magazine Words Without Borders publishes translator Denise Muir's dispatches from the 2018 Bologna Children’s Book Fair. This year, China was the guest of honor; Muir writes that "it was interesting to see the importance of cultural authenticity in the many titles on display, and the desire by Chinese publishers to . . . give English-language readers a richer, truer picture of their country." (For a culturally rich Chinese story published on WWB Campus, try "The Old Cicada," appropriate for secondary to college students. To see our entire collection of Chinese stories, poems, interviews, and essays, visit the China page.)

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In the Magazine: A Trial and a Tongue

Posted on March 23, 2018

Northern lights
Northern lights cast a green glow in Siberia.

This month's issue of the magazine Words Without Borders, entitled "Charged With Humanity," features women's writing from Hungary and tales of displacement from Lithuania. The stories below---of a rigged trial and a misunderstood meal--- seem particularly likely to spark classroom conversation. Though vastly different in setting, mood, and style, both stories immediately engage the reader in dramatic and fateful questions.

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Share Your Expertise at the NBF's "Reading Without Boundaries" Conference

Posted on March 02, 2018

How can literature help us to "bridge divides, create new connections, and deepen understandings"? This year, the National Book Foundation's "Why Reading Matters" conference brings together educators, librarians, writers, and scholars to seek answers to that question. The conference, entitled "Reading Without Boundaries," seems like a particularly good fit for readers of this website.

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