One of the most demanding, and at the same time inspiring, aspects of translating for children is the potential for such creativity that arises from what Peter Hollindale has called the ‘childness’ of children’s texts: ‘the quality of being a child ― dynamic, imaginative, experimental, interactive and unstable’. The ‘unstable’ qualities of childhood that Hollindale cites require a writer or translator to have an understanding of the freshness of language to the child’s eye and ear, the child’s affective concerns and the linguistic and dramatic play of early childhood. Translating sound, for example, whether in the read-aloud qualities of books for the younger child, in animal noises, children’s poetry or in nonsense rhymes, demands imaginative solutions ― as indeed does working with visual material. Such multi-faceted creativity has, at times, placed children’s literature at the forefront of imaginative experimentation.

* multi-faceted: 다면의