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Today I’ve my last review for this month as part of Gathering Books’ Award Winning Book Challenge, and again it’s a picture book which has won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (German Youth literature prize).
One, Two, Three, Me by Nadia Budde is a board book for the pre-school / nursery crowd. It is a quirky take on the “learn about the world around you” type of book with an exploration of colours, shapes, weather, locations, clothes, sizes and emotions/characteristics. Told in rhyme with naive, childlike drawings that reminded me a little both of Finnish illustrator Hannamari Ruohonen and Dutch illustrator Babette Harms, this is not your average toddler learning book, and is so much more fun for all that.
The choice of vocabulary is interesting (eg “gigantic, average, wee” when talking about size, or “spotted, plaid, pale” when talking about colours and patterns), and the animals modelling the cloths / locations / emotions etc are unusual: you’ll meet boars, cockroaches, rats, moose and a gnu!
The unusual lexical and illustrative choices made by Nadia Budde ensured that was this book inherently more interesting to read than many of its ilk. Whilst I wouldn’t be surprised if some parents felt happier with a more conventional approach, for example Kali Stileman’s Big Book of My World (which I reviewed here), the slightly anarchic slant taken by this book meant I loved reading it aloud, my enjoyment came across to J, and she too discovered a new book to love.
So now for a slightly geeky diversion, if you’re interested in translation. As a rhyming book, and a book where there is a close connection between the text and the images I was curious to find out how it had been translated.
Nadia Budde’s book is called Eins Zwei Drei Tier (One Two Three Animal) in the original German. A little rooting around has shown that not only has the translation been creative, Nadia Budde also must have redrawn some of the images for the English language version. Here are some images from the original book side by side with the corresponding images from the translated version.
German and English frontcovers. Note the different animal a
Hmm…I’d love to know why these changes were made too! Seems unnecessary, although both versions are very charming. Reminds me of the Swedish picture book Else-Marie and the Seven Little Daddies (reviewed in 32 Pages)-and the removal of the communal bathing scene for the North American version. Of course, with ‘One, Two, Three, Me’, it was an aesthetic decision rather than censorship, but you gotta wonder why the jackal was switched out for the giraffe in the English version! Must have been an interesting editorial meeting. I hope the illustrator got paid twice. Sadly, I don’t pay much attention to board books since I left the bookstore, but I certainly remember some very lovely titles. Your review made me very wistful. I’ll have to dive back in.
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I want to know why they were changed too! I wonder if it’s just one of those things where someone has more time to think about something and then changes it. I do that all the time with writing!
Love your filling in the blanks activity, hope you don’t mind if I steal it!
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Sorry Elli, I absolutely should have done, although it is not clear who the translator was. On the front cover of the English language version there is a second name – Jeremy Fitzkee – but I can’t be sure what role he played in the book.
Oooh thank you for this review! I am particularly interested in the original, as my children are growing up bilingually. Maybe the unusual choice of words is really good for us to help build vocabulary in the weaker language (German). And as the text is so simple it will give us plenty of time to discuss any unknown words. It is going on my wish list!
Maggy
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Hi Zoe! That’s an interesting question that you posed – I’m part of the organizing committee of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content this 2012 here in Singapore and we are planning on having a panel on translation – books that have been translated, the challenges faced by translators, the whole shebang. I am not sure whether we’re still pushing through with that panel, but you’ve raised great questions here that I’d be sure to ask if I’d have a chance to sit in that session. Great books, by the way!
And yes, my library list is growing longer by the mile. 
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