I need to find more French-language originals. I didn’t because I feel that, somehow, it’s a limitation of mine – choosing (usually) French translations of English-language originals. As Walter Benjamin writes, in translation “the original undergoes a change.” Expanding on that idea, he offers the following simile: “Just as a tangent touches a circle lightly and at but one point, with this touch rather than with the point setting the law according to which it is to continue on its straight path to infinity, a translation touches the original lightly and only at the infinitely small point of the sense, thereupon pursuing its own course according to the laws of fidelity in the freedom of linguistic flux.” 1 So, perhaps I should have included translated works in my tally. I do realize that no translation is identical to its original. I have not included in my tally (above) works in translation – that is, if a book is listed in both French and English versions, I only count it once (though I do list it below).
(At the end of this blog post, you’ll find links to other resources for finding good children’s books.) Despite its shortcomings in theorizing its own criteria, this ongoing list does name good books, and thus may (I hope) be useful to other people seeking books for young readers.
As noted in the first entry in this series, my aim is to build for her a kind of “ideal” library of children’s books – understanding, of course, that ideals are impossible, and that my own criteria (see first entry) are fuzzy at best. I love the pictures drawn entirely from the baby's perspective.Welcome to the fifth installment of “ Emily’s Library,” in which I list books bought for my 13-month-old niece. You turn the page and get a listing of what he sees, starting with his parents still asleep as the sun comes in the window. The book starts with a baby standing in his crib on the left side page, looking across at a hole cut through the right side, with PEEK-A-BOO! and a glimpse of the following page. Peek-a-boo! Is a series of wonderfully cluttered scenes of a British family which appear to be set in the World War II era - at least that's how I've always seen them.
Every scene in the book takes place somewhere in that picture, and if you look closely at almost every illustration, you can see how Janet Ahlberg, the artist, has kept everything in the right spatial relationship to everything else. I was always fascinated by the title page illustration of hilly countryside. The three bears even make an encore appearance. It goes on like this through the three bears, Jack and Jill, Little Bo-Peep and many more.
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