Reading the World's Stories

Reading the World’s Stories is volume 5 in the Bridges to Understanding series of annotated international youth literature bibliographies sponsored by the United States Board on Books for Young People. USBBY is the United States chapter of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), a Switzerland-based nonprofit whose mission is bring books and children together. The series promotes sharing international children’s books as a way to facilitate intercultural understanding and meet new literary voices. This volume follows Children’s Books from Other Countries (1998), The World though Children’s Books (2002), Crossing Boundaries with Children’s Books (2006), and Bridges to Understanding: Envisioning the World through Children’s Books (2011) and acts as a companion book to the earlier titles. Centered around the theme of the importance of stories, the guide is a resource for discovering more recent global books that fit many reading tastes and educational needs for readers aged 0-18 years. Essays by storyteller Anne Pellowski, author Beverley Naidoo, and academic Marianne Martens offer a variety of perspectives on international youth literature. This latest installment in the series covers books published from 2010-2014 and includes English-language imports as well as translations of children’s and young adult literature first published outside of the United States. These books are supplemented by a smaller number of culturally appropriate books from the US to help fill in gaps from underrepresented countries. The organization of the guide is geographic by region and country. All of the more than 800 entries are recommended, and many of the books have won awards or achieved other recognition in their home countries. Forty children’s book experts wrote the annotations. The entries are indexed by author, translator, illustrator, title, and subject. Back matter also includes international book awards, important organizations and research collections, and a selected directory of publishers known for publishing books from other countries.

About the Editors

Annette Y. Goldsmith is a Lecturer in the University of Washington Information School. She is founding editor of the online international youth literature journal, The Looking Glass http://www.the-looking-glass.net/, and has chaired the Association for Library Service to Children’s Mildred L. Batchelder Award Committee.

Theo Heras had a long career in libraries, retiring as Children's Literature Specialist at the Lillian H. Smith Branch of the Toronto Public Library. She is Past President of IBBY Canada and the author of two picture books, What Will We Do with the Baby-o? (Tundra, 2004) and Hat On, Hat Off (Pajama Press, 2016).

Susan Corapi is an Assistant Professor, teaching literacy classes at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. She has also worked as a classroom teacher and youth services librarian in several countries, contributing to her interest in using global literature to support intercultural understanding.