Pushkin Children's Books are doing a wonderful thing in publishing English translations which open the doors for our children to a whole range of high quality stories from different languages and cultures. There is thankfully already much cross-publishing with the USA and other English speaking countries (although not always enough). And one of the ups of Internet book buying is that it has become much easier to access titles from the US particularly, even when they aren't published here.* However books in other languages remain much less accessible to English readers, unless of course they are available in translation, which so few are.** There must be countless amazing stories out there that our readers sadly miss. So a big thank you to Pushkin. Amongst many others they have recently given us access to Tonke Dragt's classic fantasies from the 1960's, The Letter for the King and its sequel. These have deservedly been a great hit; they are a most important (and hugely entertaining) addition to children's literature in English. And now here are some contemporary gems, Lene Kaaberbøl's Wildwitch stories.
The storyline of the first book Wildwitch Wildfire, concerns a young girl, Clara, who gradually discovers she has the inherited magic 'talent'. She is taken for tutoring to her strange aunt who lives in the wilds on the edge of nowhere. All of this is pretty much classic young fantasy material, rather than startlingly original, but none the worse for that.
Clara soon learns that she is a 'Wildwitch' with particular powers of communication with the natural world. She develops a rather interestingly ambivalent relationship with a cat familiar. Later she has to play a lead role in staving off an attack from a rogue witch, Chimera, who wants bring Clara under her evil sway. All of this is in essence familiar material, but here told beautifully afresh for a new young audience (8-10 ish?)
Clara and the other 'good' characters are wonderfully warm and empathetic, whilst the evil element is suitably frightening without descending too far towards adult horror. All the elements of a good children's fantasy story are here, adored animals, a close boy friend who loyally supports from afar, a second girl who starts off as a rival but comes to be more helpful, and of course tinglingly exciting 'trials' which have to be passed to defeat the arch enemy.
It is good that young readers are introduced to all these central fantasy elements. But what makes this book so special is the quality of its writing, both in terms of its language and of its storytelling. Of course it is always difficult with a translation, where you are unable to access the original directly, to know exactly how much the qualities of the written language are due to the author and how much to the translator. Here I suspect a good deal of each. Certainly the translation is exceptional from an English reader's point of view; it is always completely idiomatic and comfortable to read at word, sentence and text level. If it is true to the original as well, which I guess it will be, it is a skilled piece of work. But I feel the greatest credit is probably the author's. The story is written in relatively short sentences. These make the text readily accessible to young readers, but more importantly carry them straight into the delightful mind of, Clara, the first person narrator. It is totally credible as her own story, told in her own way, with her own words - and this is totally charming. Though the writing is simple, it is never simplistic; it allows readers to share every moment of this exciting story in a way which is at once both touchingly human and delightfully magical. It is scary too of course, but in a good way; all that a young fantasy should be.
Thanks to these translations Lene Kaaberbøl can join the likes of USA's Sage Blackwood and UK's wonderful Abi Elphinstone in providing young, English speaking readers with appropriate and engaging introductions to magical fantasy. The actual world of children's literature and the imaginative world of magical fantasy have much to offer. These titles are most warmly welcome as outstanding examples of both.
And if the splendid character of mentor Wildwitch, Aunt Isa, had not been written in Denmark, then I might have thought her modelled on wonderful Welsh artist/author Jackie Morris!
And now, just published here, we have the second in the series, which confirms, indeed exceeds, the promise of the first. In fact the story grows considerably in this second book, and, although many of the most recognisable features of children's fictions remain, it is perhaps even more original and imaginative than the first. It is certainly very compelling.
As before, it is a little hard to tell if it is a result of the writing or the translation, but the sentences are generally rather more extended and complex than in Wildfire. That means that the original, clear directness of Clara's voice is a little lost. But that now seems right for Clara too is growing, growing with the book, growing with the story. She is continually trying to see and to understand what is really around her, to discover what she really needs to do, to find who she really is. This is a deeper, richer, darker story than the first - but not so dark as to stray outside the sphere of its target age group. It is now a story for children who can take just a little blood and gore with their magic, and, indeed, blood is at the core of its magic. (If I am understanding correctly its title in the original Danish translates as something like 'Wildwitch: Viridian's Blood')
If I say this book get more Harry-Potterish, I do not mean to imply that it is in any way derivative, or even largely similar, but simply that it has that same extremely effective combination of spooky magic and unfolding mystery that is to be found in, say, The Chamber of Secrets.
This author is a real find and I hope that many English-speaking children will now find her.
It seems that fans, of which I am sure there will soon be many, will not have too long to wait for Book 3. They will I'm sure be delighted.
Notes:
*Even so I strongly urge the support of actual bookshops (especially independent local ones) whenever possible. They are a treasure that we will lose if we don't use.
**Tove Jansson and Astrid Lindgren have, of course, always been amongst the notable exceptions. I love both. And the latter's Ronia the Robber's Daughter is high on my list of all time favourite children's books.
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