Global Characters: French Books in Translation for Children & Young Adults

What better way for children to learn about foreign cultures than by reading the children's literature of other countries?  Hopefully, an increased accessibility to knowledge of other cultures will promote understanding of and respect for diversity.
~Joyce Herbeck, "French Authors, Global Characters"


With Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin in the movie theaters this winter, I thought parents might be looking for other international fare for their children to read.  The Tintin books & the Asterix books by Goscinny & Uderzo are great graphic novels & great fun, but perhaps you'd like to see a couple of other options.

Here are a selection of children's books translated from French, recommend by an article in Book Links, a Booklist magazine supplement. Many of these have won the Mildred L. Batchelder Award, given to the most outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States.


Picture Books

Big Wolf and Little Wolf by Nadine Brun-Cosme

Star of Fear, Star of Hope by Jo Hoestlandt


Middle-Grade Books

A Book of Coupons by Susie Morgenstern

Nicholas by  Rene Goscinny & Jean-Jacques Sempé

The Pull of the Ocean by Jean-Claude Mourlevat


Young Adult Novels

The Killer's Tears by Anne-Laure Bondoux

The Shadows of Ghadames by Joëlle Stolz

Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faïza Guène