Resources for Researchers

Here you’ll find resources to support research into world literature for children, especially books, stories and poetry translated into English.

With the help of Outside In World and many individual contributors, we’ve been keeping an open-source list of children’s and YA books in translation every year since 2017.

See below on this page for links to the blog posts for each year’s list. You can also view our lists as google spreadsheets:

We are currently in the process of tidying up these spreadsheets; please get in touch if you’d be interested to help with this! For other inquiries about this collaborative data collection project, contact Ruth at world.kid.lit@gmail.com.

Lower down on this page, you’ll find links to various children’s/YA literature research associations, faculties and projects worldwide. Please contact us to recommend others to add.

2022 Translations

Here is the 2022 list: children’s and YA books in translation into English from any language, published anywhere. At the last update, we listed 180 books.

2021 Translations

Here is the 2021 list: children’s and teen books in translation into English from any language, published anywhere.

At the time of the last update (in Sept 2021) our spreadsheet included 260 books. Of these 260, 170 were translations of books first published in Europe; 90 were from Asia, Australasia, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. It was around 35 from the Americas, 45 from Asia, and just 10 books translated from Africa and the Middle East.

Breaking that down further, we know of just five translations from the Middle East, including Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew. From the Americas, so far we know of 35 translations, including books from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, USA and Venezuela.

We really hope there are more translations that we don’t know about yet (please, publishers, send us your data! and your books to review on this blog!) but the imbalance in these figures make us all the more determined in our efforts to encourage more translation from countries and languages beyond Europe.

2020 Translations

The 2020 list: children’s and young adult books in translation

2019 Translations

The 2019 list: Children’s and Young Adult Books in English Translation

2017 and 2018 Translations

New in 2017 and 2018: Children’s Books Translated into English

Children’s and YA Literature Research Associations

American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL) 

Association for Children’s Literature in South Asia | Twitter: @ACLiSA

Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing, University of Reading, UK

Children’s Literature Association (ChLA)

Children’s Literature, Media & Culture (Erasmus Mundus International Master) programme, University of Glasgow, UK

Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, USA | Diversity Statistics Book Search

Global Literature in Libraries Initiative | Children’s book reviews every Wednesday (#WorldKidLitWednesday) and special features every September for World Kid Lit Month. Hosts of the GLLI Translated YA Book Prize and #IntlYALitMonth every May | Website | Twitter

International Youth Library, Munich, Germany | White Ravens Database Online | @IJBib

Muna Kalati, Cameroon | Twitter: @MunaKalati

National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature, Roehampton University, UK

Outside in World | UK charity dedicated to promoting and exploring children’s books in translation. The OIW website is a major, well-respected resource on international children’s literature which features an extensive database of over 2,000 translated books, with reviews added regularly. View the database via the Book Browse feature. | Website | Twitter

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Aherst, MA, USA | The Carle describes itself as the international champion for picture books. The museum collects, preserves, and presents picture books and picture-book illustrations for audiences passionate about children’s literature.

Rutgers University International Youth Collection at the Archibald S. Alexander Library

YA Studies Association (YASA) – international

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Please contact us to recommend other associations and projects to add to our list!