Mildred L. Batchelder Award

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.

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"
Country	United States
Presented by	Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association
First awarded	1968
Website	ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/batchelderaward

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	The Little Man	Erich Kästner	James Kirkup	German	W
1969	Charles Scribner's Sons	Don't Take Teddy	Babbis Friis-Baastad	Lise Sømme McKinnon	Norwegian	W
1970	Holt, Rinehart & Winston	Wildcat Under Glass	Alki Zei	Edward Fenton	Greek	W
1971	Pantheon Books	In the Land of Ur, the Discovery of Ancient Mesopotamia	Hans Baumann	Stella Humphries	German	W
1972	Holt, Rinehart & Winston	Friedrich	Hans Peter Richter	Edite Kroll	German	W
1973	William Morrow	Pulga	S. R. Van Iterson	Alexander and Alison Gode	Dutch	W
1974	E. P. Dutton	Petros' War	Alki Zei	Edward Fenton	Greek	W
1975	Crown Publishing Group	An Old Tale Carved Out of Stone	A. Linevskii	Maria Polushkin	Russian	W
1976	Henry Z. Walck	The Cat and Mouse Who Shared a House	Ruth Hürlimann	Anthea Bell	German	W
1977	Atheneum Press	The Leopard	Cecil Bødker	Gunnar Poulsen	Danish	W
1978	(no award)
1979	Harcourt Brace Jovanovich	Rabbit Island	Jörg Steiner	Ann Conrad Lammers	German	W
1979	Franklin Watts / Scholastic	Konrad	Christine Nöstlinger	Anthea Bell	German	W
1980	E. P. Dutton	The Sound of the Dragon's Feet	Alki Zei	Edward Fenton	Greek	W
1981	William Morrow	The Winter When Time Was Frozen	Els Pelgrom	Maryka and Raphael Rudnik	Dutch	W
1982	Bradbury Press	The Battle Horse	Harry Kullman	George Blecher and Lone Thygesen Blecher	Swedish	W
1983	Lothrop, Lee & Shepard	Hiroshima No Pika	Toshi Maruki	Kurita-Bando Literary Agency	Japanese	W
1984	Viking Press	Ronia the Robber's Daughter	Astrid Lindgren	Patricia Crampton	Swedish	W
1985	Houghton Mifflin	The Island on Bird Street	Uri Orlev	Hillel Halkin	Hebrew	W
1986	Creative Education	Rose Blanche	Christophe Gallaz and Roberto Innocenti	Martha Coventry and Richard Craglia	Italian	W
1987	Lothrop, Lee & Shepard	No Hero for the Kaiser	Rudolph Frank	Patricia Crampton	German	W
1988	McElderry Books	If You Didn't Have Me	Ulf Nilsson	George Blecher and Lone Thygesen Blecher	Swedish	W
1989	Lothrop, Lee & Shepard	Crutches	Peter Härtling	Elizabeth D. Crawford	German	W
1990	E. P. Dutton	Buster's World	Bjarne Reuter	Anthea Bell	Danish	W
1991	E. P. Dutton	A Hand Full of Stars	Rafik Schami	Rika Lesser	German	W
1992	Houghton Mifflin	The Man from the Other Side	Uri Orlev	Hillel Halkin	Hebrew	W
1993	(no award)
1994	Farrar, Straus and Giroux	The Apprentice	Pilar Molina Llorente	Robin Longshaw	Spanish	W
	Farrar, Straus and Giroux	The Princess in the Kitchen Garden	Annemie Heymans and Margriet Heymans	Johanna H. Prins and Johanna W. Prins	Dutch	hon
	Viking Press	Anne Frank Beyond the Diary: A Photographic Remembrance	Ruud van der Rol and Rian Verhoeven	Tony Langham and Plym Peters	Dutch	hon
1995	E.P. Dutton	The Boys from St. Petri	Bjarne Reuter	Anthea Bell	Danish	W
	Lothrop, Lee & Shepard	Sister Shako and Kolo the Goat: Memories of My Childhood in Turkey	Vedat Dalokay	Güner Ener	Turkish	hon
1996	Houghton Mifflin	The Lady with the Hat	Uri Orlev	Hillel Halkin	Hebrew	W
	Henry Holt & Co	Damned Strong Love: The True Story of Willi G. And Stephan K.	Lutz Van Dijk	Elizabeth D. Crawford	German	hon
	Walker and Company	Star of Fear, Star of Hope	Jo Hoestlandt	Mark Polizzotti	French	hon
1997	Farrar, Straus and Giroux	The Friends	Kazumi Yumoto	Cathy Hirano	Japanese	W
1998	Henry Holt & Co	The Robber and Me	Josef Holub	Elizabeth D. Crawford	German	W
	Scholastic Press	Hostage to War: a True Story	Tatjana Wassiljewa	Anna Trenter	German	hon
	Viking Press	Nero Corleone: a Cat's Story	Elke Heidenreich	Doris Orgel	German	hon
1999	Dial Press	Thanks to My Mother	Schoschana Rabinovici	James Skofield	German	W
	Viking Press	Secret Letters from 0 to 10	Susie Morgenstern	Gill Rosner	French	hon
2000	Walker and Company	The Baboon King	Anton Quintana	John Nieuwenhuizen	Dutch	W
	Farrar, Straus and Giroux	Collector of Moments	Quint Buchholz	Peter F. Neumeyer	German	hon
	Rabén & Sjögren	Vendela in Venice	Christina Björk	Patricia Crampton	Swedish	hon
	Front Street	Asphalt Angels	Ineke Holtwijk	Wanda Boeke	Dutch	hon
2001	Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic	Samir and Yonatan	Daniella Carmi	Yael Lotan	Hebrew	W
	David R. Godine	Ultimate Game	Christian Lehmann	William Rodarmor	French	hon
2002	Cricket Books / Carus Publishing	How I Became an American	Karin Gündisch	James Skofield	German	W
	Viking Press	A Book of Coupons	Susie Morgenstern	Gill Rosner	French	hon
2003	The Chicken House / Scholastic	The Thief Lord	Cornelia Funke	Oliver Latsch	German	W
	David R. Godine	Henrietta and the Golden Eggs	Hanna Johansen	John Barrett	German	hon
2004	Walter Lorraine Books (Houghton Mifflin)	Run, Boy, Run	Uri Orlev	Hillel Halkin	Hebrew	W
	Chronicle Books	The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon: The Story of Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins	Bea Uusma Schyffert	Emi Gunér	Swedish	hon
2005	Delacorte Press / Dell	The Shadows of Ghadames	Joëlle Stolz	Catherine Temerson	French	W
	Farrar, Straus and Giroux	The Crow-Girl: The Children of Crow Cove	Bodil Bredsdorff	Faith Ingwersen	Danish	hon
	Atheneum Books (Richard Jackson Bks)	Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi	David Chotjewitz	Doris Orgel	German	hon
2006	Arthur A. Levine Books	An Innocent Soldier	Josef Holub	Michael Hofmann	German	W
	Phaidon Press	Nicholas	René Goscinny	Anthea Bell	French	hon
	Bloomsbury Children’s Books	When I Was a Soldier	Valérie Zenatti	Adriana Hunter	French	hon
2007	Delacorte Press / Dell	The Pull of the Ocean	Jean-Claude Mourlevat	Y. Maudet	French	W
	Delacorte Press / Dell	The Killer's Tears	Anne-Laure Bondoux	Y. Maudet	French	hon
	Hyperion / Miramax	The Last Dragon	Silvana De Mari	Shaun Whiteside	Italian	hon
2008	VIZ Media	Brave Story	Miyuki Miyabe	Alexander O. Smith	Japanese	W
	Milkweed Editions	The Cat: Or, How I Lost Eternity	Jutta Richter	Anna Brailovsky	German	hon
	Phaidon Press	Nicholas and the Gang	René Goscinny	Anthea Bell	French	hon
2009	Arthur A. Levine Books	Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit	Nahoko Uehashi	Cathy Hirano	Japanese	W
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	Garmann's Summer	Stian Hole	Don Bartlett	Norwegian	hon
	Amulet Books	Tiger Moon	Antonia Michaelis	Anthea Bell	German	hon
2010	Delacorte Press / Dell	A Faraway Island	Annika Thor	Linda Schenck	Swedish	W
	Farrar, Straus and Giroux	Eidi	Bodil Bredsdorff	Kathryn Mahaffy	Danish	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	Big Wolf and Little Wolf	Nadine Brun-Cosme	Claudia Bedrick	French	hon
	Arthur A. Levine Books	Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness	Nahoko Uehashi	Cathy Hirano	Japanese	hon
2011	Delacorte Press / Dell	A Time of Miracles	Anne-Laure Bondoux	Y. Maudet	French	W
	namelos	Departure Time	Truus Matti	Nancy Forest-Flier	Dutch	hon
	Atheneum Books	Nothing	Janne Teller	Martin Aitken	Danish	hon
2012	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	Soldier Bear	Bibi Dumon Tak	Laura Watkinson	Dutch	W
	Delacorte Press / Dell	The Lily Pond	Annika Thor	Linda Schenck	Swedish	hon
2013	Dial Books	My Family for the War	Anne C. Voorhoeve	Tammi Reichel	German	W
	Graphic Universe	A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return	Zeina Abirached	Edward Gauvin	French	hon
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	Son of a Gun	Anne de Graaf	Anne de Graaf	Dutch	hon
2014	Enchanted Lion Books	Mister Orange	Truus Matti	Laura Watkinson	Dutch	W
	Enchanted Lion Books	The Bathing Costume or the Worst Vacation of My Life	Charlotte Moundlic	Claudia Zoe Bedrick	French	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	My Father's Arms Are a Boat	Stein Erik Lunde	Kari Dickson	Norwegian	hon
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	The War Within These Walls	Aline Sax	Laura Watkinson	Dutch	hon
2015	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	Mikis and the Donkey	Bibi Dumon Tak	Laura Watkinson	Dutch	W
	Roaring Brook Press (First Second Books)	Hidden: A Child's Story of the Holocaust	Loïc Dauvillier	Alexis Siegel	French	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	Nine Open Arms	Benny Lindelauf	John Nieuwenhuizen	Dutch	hon
2016	Enchanted Lion Books	The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy	Beatrice Alemagna	Claudia Zoe Bedrick	French	W
	Seven Stories Press	Adam and Thomas	Aharon Appelfeld	Jeffrey M. Green	Hebrew	hon
	NorthSouth Books	Grandma Lives in a Perfume Village	Fang Suzhen	Huang Xiumin	Chinese	hon
	TOON Books (Candlewick Press)	Written and Drawn by Henrietta	Ricardo Liniers	Ricardo Liniers	Spanish	hon
2017	Enchanted Lion Books	Cry, Heart, But Never Break	Glenn Ringtved	Robert Moulthrop	Danish	W
	NorthSouth Books	As Time Went By	José Sanabria	Audrey Hall	German	hon
	Margaret K. McElderry Books	The Ballad of a Broken Nose	Arne Svingen	Kari Dickson	Norwegian	hon
	Chronicle Books	Over the Ocean	Tarō Gomi	Taylor Norman	Japanese	hon
2018	Delacorte Press / Dell	The Murderer's Ape	Jakob Wegelius	Peter Graves	Swedish	W
	Charlesbridge	Malala: Activist for Girls' Education	Raphaёle Frier	Julie Cormier	French	hon
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	When a Wolf is Hungry	Christine Naumann-Villemin	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	French	hon
	Elsewhere Editions	You Can't Be Too Careful!	Roger Mello	Daniel Hahn	Portuguese	hon
2019	Thames & Hudson	The Fox on the Swing	Evelina Daciūtė	Translation Bureau	Lithuanian	W
	Yonder	Run for Your Life	Silvana Gandolfi	Lynne Sharon Schwartz	Italian	hon
	Graphic Universe	My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder	Nie Jun	Edward Gauvin	French	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	Jerome by Heart	Thomas Scotto, illustrated by Olivier Tallec	Claudia Zoe Bedrick and Karin Snelson	French	hon
2020	Enchanted Lion Books	Brown	Håkon Øvreås	Kari Dickson	Norwegian	W
	Godwin Books/Henry Holt	The Beast Player	Nahoko Uehashi	Cathy Hirano	Japanese	hon
	Atheneum Books	The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree	Paola Peretti	Denise	Italian	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	Do Fish Sleep?	Jens Raschke	Belinda Cooper	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	Gianni Rodari, illustrated by Valerio Vidali	Antony Shugaar	Italian	W
	HarperCollins	Catherine's War	Julia Billet, illustrated by Claire Fauvel	Ivanka Hahnenberger	French	hon
2022	Restless Books	Temple Alley Summer	Sachiko Kashiwaba, illustrated by Miho Satake	Avery Fischer Udagawa	Japanese	W
	Enchanted Lion Books	Coffee, Rabbit, Snowdrop, Lost	Betina Birkjaer, illustrated by Margrethe Kjaergaard	Sinéad Quirke Køngerskov	Danish	hon
	Elsewhere Editions	The Meadow of Fantasies	Hadi Mohammadi, illustrated by Nooshin Safakhoo	Sara Khalili	Persian/Farsi	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	The Most Beautiful Story	Brynjulf Jung Tjønn, illustrated by Øyvind Torseter	Kari Dickson	Norwegian	hon
	Enchanted Lion Books	Sato the Rabbit (Book 1)	Yuki Ainoya	Michael Blaskowsky	Japanese	hon
	Levine Querido	The Sea-Ringed World: Sacred Stories of the Americas	María García Esperón, illustrated by Amanda Mijangos	David Bowles	Spanish	hon
2023	HarperCollins	Just a Girl: A True Story of World War II	Lia Levi, illustrated by Jess Mason	Sylvia Notini	Italian	W
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	Different: A Story of the Spanish Civil War	Mónica Montañés, illustrated by Eva Sánchez Gómez	Lawrence Schimel	Spanish	hon
	Candlewick Press	Dragonfly Eyes	Cao Wenxuan	Helen Wang	Chinese	hon
	Levine Querido	João by a Thread	Roger Mello	Daniel Hahn	Portuguese	hon
2024	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	Seiji Yoshida	Jan Mitsuko Cash	Japanese	W
	Yonder	The House of the Lost on the Cape	Sachiko Kashiwaba, illustrated by Yukiko Saito	Avery Fischer Udagawa	Japanese	hon
	Eerdmans Books for Young Readers	Later, When I’m Big	Bette Westera, illustrated by Mattias De Leeuw	Laura Watkinson	Dutch	hon
	Levine Querido	Pardalita	Joana Estrela	Lyn Miller-Lachmann	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

Awd	Hon	Language
(56)	(66)	(1968–2023)
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