Translating for Children is not a book on translations of children's literature but a book on translating for children. It is concentrating on human action in translation and focuses on the translator, the translation process, and translating for children, in particular. Translators never translate words in isolation but whole situations. They bring to the translation their cultural heritage, their reading experience, and in the case of children's books, their image of childhood and their own child image. In so doing, they enter into a dialogic relationship that ultimately involves readers, the author, the illustrator, the translator, and the publisher.
What makes "Translating for Children "one of its kind is the special attention it pays to issues like the illustrations of stories, the performance (like reading aloud) of the books in translation, and the problem of adaptation. What is an adaptation? How does it differ from translating really?
The intention of "Translating for Children "is to demonstrate how the whole situation of translation takes precedence over any efforts to discover and reproduce the original author's intentions as a given. Rather than the authority of the author, the book concentrates on the intentions of the readers of a book in translation, both the translator and the target-language readers.
Riitta Oittinen holds a Ph.D. and docentship in translation studies and she is specializing in literary translation. She teaches translation at the translation department of Tampere University, Finland. She's the author of several books yet, in addition to her dissertation, this is her first in the English language. Riitta Oittinen is also an artist and thecreator of animated films, stories, illustrations, and translations for the book
"Translating for Children "is suitable for teaching purpose and can be used as a course book in literary translation and children's literature.
