Literacy Today May/June 2016

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nternational children’s and young adult books matter, and publishers, teachers,

and parents in the United States and Canada should be paying much more

attention to them.

Between the United States and Canada, approximately 6,000 books a year for

children and young adults come into the market. Among them are some of the best

books in the world. Thus, young people in these two countries are fortunate to

have access to works of such high literary quality, appeal, and lasting impact.

Why, then, should we care about books from other countries? This is a

question that calls for adults who serve as gatekeepers to what children read to

consider their roles in introducing works to children. And it is a question of what

our hopes and aims are for children’s literate and global lives.

International books are those originally published outside of the United States

and Canada and, if necessary, are translated from the original language. These

By Junko Yokota & William Teale

Why we all need access to more literature

from around the world

Junko Yokota

(junko.yokota@mac.com),

an ILA member since 1983,

is a professor emerita of

reading and language at

National Louis University

in Illinois, and the director

of the Center for Teaching

Through Children’s Books.

William Teale

(wteale@uic.edu) is a

professor in the Literacy,

Language & Culture

Program at the University

of Illinois at Chicago and

the director of the UIC

Center for Literacy. He is

president-elect of ILA’s

Board of Directors.

INTERNATIONAL

BOOKS MATTER

OUR VIEW

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May/June 2016 | LITERACY TODAY

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