ABSTRACT
It was not until the second half of the twentieth century that translations and translators were rewarded separately from the existing children’s book prizes established in the 1920s and 30s in the US and the UK1. An acknowledgement of the role of translations in introducing English-speaking children to literature from across the world was long overdue, and the Mildred L. Batchelder Award, founded in 1966 in the US to honour one of the ‘wise librarians’ who promoted translated literature with such dedication from the 1930s onwards, was the fi rst of its kind. It came on the scene at a time of considerable translation activity in English-language children’s literature in the mid twentieth century. An indication of publishing trends and landmark translations of the decades leading up to the founding of the Batchelder Award and, some thirty years later, of its British counterpart, the Marsh Award for the Translation of Children’s Literature, will provide the context for an introduction to both awards, an analysis of common themes in the winning titles, and an indication of the most frequently cited translators.
