Books Translated from English

The majority of books I have reviewed so far have been written originally in Chinese, or translated from a language other than English (several are originally Japanese).  I'm certainly not a purist - if you can find your child's favorite book from school in Chinese, that's great.  Below are some classics that I have found, as well as ones I have been disappointed not to have found yet.  Perhaps you can help!  In this section, I will skip summaries of the plots, and focus on the translations and/or the sources.

Dr. Seuss' books - When I first started looking for Chinese children's books, I was surprised that most of the Dr. Seuss' books have been translated into Chinese, and are available both at the San Mateo County libraries and at Books and Me.  These are bilingual versions, and upon closer inspection, written with the purpose to teach English to people in China or Taiwan.  A couple of books do a fair job attempting to keep the rhyme while still having the story make sense, such as Cat in a Hat.  Most of them sound awful in Chinese, and do not make sense at all.  I tried a few, but have given up.


Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel - I was very happy recently to have found in the Millbrae library a couple of these classic Frog and Toad Are Friends books in the Chinese children's section.  They were also published mostly for the English learners, and contain CDs of Mr. Lobel reading these stories in English.  The pages with the pictures are all in Chinese, and the original English version is at the end.  The translator did a wonderful job - these stories read smoothly, and preserve the humor and warmth of the original tales.  The San Mateo libraries only have two of the four books in this series, and I was surprised to find that Books and Me does not carry them.  But if your child's also into these books, like Calvin is, give the Chinese version a try!

Olivia series by Ian Falconer - yes, everybody knows and loves Olivia the pig, including the Chinese.  The original Olivia book is available through the San Mateo County libraries; both the original one and Olivia Saves the Circus are available at Books and Me.  These are all written in Chinese, for the Chinese-speaking kids to enjoy.  Calvin actually got a dose of the Chinese Olivia (Ao Li Wei) before he realized she also existed in English - and loved her every bit as much as an American kid would.

The Magic School Bus by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen - I got the Chinese version (the one about electricity) from the Millbrae library recently, and Calvin took a look and told me they had these books at school.  However, the school teachers apparently never read them to the kids, so Calvin was very happy to hear me read the Chinese version.  Through this version, I learned many technical Chinese terms about electricity myself, and of course I will forget them in a week while Calvin will remember them for the next year.  Even though Calvin's interest, coupled with my desire to improve my own Chinese, drove me to lend a couple more Magic School Bus books (from Books and Me - the San Mateo libraries only have the one about electricity), these are still impossible to read word-for-word.  The translation is actually pretty awful, even in the "easy" sections describing only the plot and not the scientific details.  Many colloquial American terms or expressions really should not be directly translated, but they are in these books, and they sound forced.  I would have to do my homework, read the books myself to figure out which main points I want to talk about on each page, and only focus on those when I read to Calvin.  Despite all my complaints, how can I resist getting him more of these books when he shouted in glee a couple of days ago: "Xie Xie Ma Ma!  You know I love these Magic School Bus books!  Let's read them now!!"


What I would like to find in Chinese, but have not:
- Berenstein Bears - I know the VCDs exist, and so do the books.  But where can we get them from?
- Oliver Pig and Amanda Pig series by Jean Van Leeuwen
- Caillou - OK, so I know they're not so politically correct, and the two Chinese girls who are Caillou's friends are both stereotypically Chinese-looking, and one of them even wears Qing-Dynasty clothes every day to school.  But should that stop people from translating these shows and books?

What I'm sure you already know:
Thomas, Dora, and Diego exist in every language possible, including Chinese.  In Taiwan (and probably also in China), Dora and Diego speak mostly in Chinese, with a few English words here and there.  :-)