September 2015: Cao Wenxuan 曹文轩

One of China's most popular authors of children's fiction, Cao Wenxuan's works are typically set in the China of the 1950s and 60s, and feature children and animals as their main characters. Titles such as The Straw House and Bronze and Sunflower have collectively sold millions of copies in China, and Cao has won most of the domestic prizes available to children's authors. His reputation abroad is on the rise, with a nomination for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and the publication of titles including Bronze and Sunflower in English.

(Bio from Paper Republic)

This month, we're very lucky to have a story specially translated for us by Helen Wang, whose wonderful translation of Bronze and Sunflower was recently released by Walker Books.  'A Very Special Pigeon', 一只叫凤的鸽子, is a tale of rivalry, friendship and pigeons... You can read the Chinese here and Helen's translation here.

Bronze and Sunflower is available on amazon, where you can also read a sample of the first chapter. It was chosen by Ann Morgan as her book of the month in April, on her blog A Year of Reading the World. You can read Bertrand Mialaret, of mychinesebooks.com, on Cao here.

There's an interesting interview with Helen, about translating children's books, here.

And you can read Cao's essay ‘Crows' on Read Paper Republic on September 24th.