Works for children have given delight in many languages and showed readers new horizons, Mei Jia reports.

Writers of the Great Stories for Children series attend a seminar in Beijing in January. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

After more than six decades penning beautiful tales for young readers, Jin Bo, 85, is still going strong with his captivating and entertaining stories. Some of his works have been selected as student textbooks.

Woodee's Adventure is one of his creations. First published in 2007, the book is composed of a "crown of sonnets" as he calls it, and was hailed by critics as "an oath to love" featuring a little foot's adventure, entirely on its own, not attached to any body.

China Translation and Publishing House has recently released a Chinese-English bilingual version of the book, among an eight-book series entitled Great Stories for Children.

All the translators for the series in English are native speakers from Britain, the United States and Canada. And the series is also being translated into Dutch and Arabic.

Jin Bo is actually the pen name of Wang Jinbo. He recognizes that it's not easy to translate the tales into foreign versions because of the 14 consecutive chapters of sonnets.

"The rhythm and inner structure add to the difficulties. My daughter, a bilingual professional, has tried, but failed," he says.

But translator Brian Willson Bies, from the US, who got his master's degree in Chinese modern and contemporary literature from Nanjing Normal University, has fulfilled Jin Bo's expectations.

"The English version," Jin Bo says," has somehow fulfilled me too. It enables me to communicate wholeheartedly with my foreign readers, and gives me the impetus to step into a new phase of writing. And it testifies, to me, that belief in love transcends cultural differences."

Like Jin Bo, all other authors selected for the series are established, influential writers of children's books, including Gao Hongbo, Yang Hongying and Xue Tao.

(From left) Writers Jin Bo, Cao Wenxuan, Xue Tao, and translator Jerimiah Willhite. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Hu Xiaokai, director of the publisher's department of Chinese books for international readers, says that the chosen representative works are told from an international perspective, or are about shared worldviews. For example, Dad in My Pocket, a hilarious fantasy told by a boy, Yang Ge, about his trips and triumphs with his father, a tiny man, according to the publisher's editors, "advocates persistence, responsibility and optimism, making it thought-provoking while entertaining".

The book's author Yang Peng, 48, believes fantasy stories and game-like experiences in reading are key to helping explore young people's imagination. Yang has worked with Disney China and published a series of stories whereby Mickey Mouse and his friends use kung fu to fight with the evil Black Bat King as they are whisked back to ancient China.

The publisher, Hu says, hopes the bilingual series can be an opportunity of "collective international exposure "for writers like Jin Bo and Yang to become better known by international publishers and copyright agents.

Cao Wenxuan, Peking University professor and China's first Hans Christian Andersen Award winner, says he believes in the literary quality of Chinese children's writers as highlighted by the series.

"We've been selling a certain amount of Chinese children's titles to the global market," Cao says, adding that more quality works will be introduced in the future.

The books of the bilingual Great Stories for Children series. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

One interesting aspect about this bilingual series is that it caters to both the domestic and foreign markets, especially in both reading for pleasure and language learning.

Liu Zuochen, director of the publishing department at China Publishing and Media Holdings Co Ltd, of which China Translation and Publishing House is a member, says the series is an example of the publisher's recent attempts to combine pleasure and learning through publishing original Chinese children's titles penned by key writers.

"The series and other works fill a blank space in China for bilingual books, offering Chinese stories for youngsters with English expressions. It also provides material for foreign readers who would like to read about Chinese thoughts and emotions in the Chinese language," Liu adds.

Hu agrees, and says children's literature is easier to access, just like back in her university days as an English language major when English language novels, including The Wizard of Oz, were on the reading list.

(From left) Some of the book covers in the series, Dad in My Pocket by Yang Peng, Looking for the Mermaid by Yang Hongying, September Is Frozen by Xue Tao and the Adventure of Lan Xiaoyu by Wu Meizhen. (PHOTO PROVID O CHINA DAILY)

Another interesting feature of the series is its format to help language learners. The English copy for domestic readers has new words in bold characters, and a vocabulary booklet is attached. The booklet divides the task of learning 100 new words into 10 days. Additionally, an audio version is available by scanning a code on the back cover. She also hopes that their partners for the foreign language versions will do the same for Chinese language learners overseas.

Zhang Mingzhou, president of International Board on Books for Young People, a nonprofit international organization, the first president from China in its 67-year history, says readers are lucky to have such books. "There were few opportunities to read Chinese contemporary children's titles in foreign languages when I was a child," says the 52-year-old.

Xue Tao, author of September Is Frozen, another book in the series, says he could tell that the American translator, Kyle David Anderson, did a good job. "He sent me long lists of questions concerning my text to consult me for advice, and we discussed a lot back and forth," Xue says.

Another translator is Jerimiah Willhite, a graduate of Chinese language from the University of Washington in 2009. The 32-year-old translated three of the eight titles.

"It is important to introduce young people to traditional values from many different cultures, so that they can have a more informed worldview, and gain a better understanding of one of the world's most influential cultures," he says in an email interview.

The series' translators like Bies, Anderson and Willhite, in a sense, are just like the Chinese boy who finally crosses the border to meet his Russian friend and the puppy they both loved in September Is Frozen.

Contact the writer at meijia@chinadaily.com.cn