Writers pen tales for young fans

The publisher, Hu says, hopes the bilingual series can be an opportunity of "collective international exposure "for writers like Jin Bo and Yang to become better known by international publishers and copyright agents.

Cao Wenxuan, Peking University professor and China's first Hans Christian Andersen Award winner, says he believes in the literary quality of Chinese children's writers as highlighted by the series.

"We've been selling a certain amount of Chinese children's titles to the global market," Cao says, adding that more quality works will be introduced in the future.

One interesting aspect about this bilingual series is that it caters to both the domestic and foreign markets, especially in both reading for pleasure and language learning.

Liu Zuochen, director of the publishing department at China Publishing and Media Holdings Co Ltd, of which China Translation and Publishing House is a member, says the series is an example of the publisher's recent attempts to combine pleasure and learning through publishing original Chinese children's titles penned by key writers.

"The series and other works fill a blank space in China for bilingual books, offering Chinese stories for youngsters with English expressions. It also provides material for foreign readers who would like to read about Chinese thoughts and emotions in the Chinese language," Liu adds.

Hu agrees, and says children's literature is easier to access, just like back in her university days as an English language major when English language novels, including The Wizard of Oz, were on the reading list.

Another interesting feature of the series is its format to help language learners. The English copy for domestic readers has new words in bold characters, and a vocabulary booklet is attached. The booklet divides the task of learning 100 new words into 10 days. Additionally, an audio version is available by scanning a code on the back cover. She also hopes that their partners for the foreign language versions will do the same for Chinese language learners overseas.

Zhang Mingzhou, president of International Board on Books for Young People, a nonprofit international organization, the first president from China in its 67-year history, says readers are lucky to have such books. "There were few opportunities to read Chinese contemporary children's titles in foreign languages when I was a child," says the 52-year-old.