The Languages of Children’s Books, a new one-day mini-festival for the National Year of Reading and World Kid Lit Month, brings together the UK’s children’s book world to celebrate translation and linguistic diversity on Thursday 17 September, at University of Reading and online

Young people in the UK are increasingly multilingual. More than 20% of school pupils are recorded as using more than one language according to the schools census, while over 300 languages are spoken across the population.

Yet this vital part of children’s lives is rarely reflected in the books they read, write Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O’Connor. Despite the popularity of often-translated genres like Japanese manga, translations and bilingual books remain a rarity in British children’s publishing. Only a small percentage of the approximately 10,000 children’s books published in the UK each year are translations according to Outside in World.

At the same time, languages education in the UK is in critical decline. Major universities are cutting degree programmes and regional “cold spots” for languages education  are emerging. If professionals are not trained to use and understand how languages work, what creative potential are we losing to children’s books and publishing industry in the UK? What readers are we not serving?

Languages of Children’s Books: Celebrating Translation and Linguistic Diversity, a new hybrid festival and conference,will bring together publishers, translators, librarians, researchers and literacy advocates to discuss these intersecting issues. Participants will explore how translation and multilingual storytelling can open up reading for young people, as part of the UK’s National Year of Reading.

Speakers include Jake Hope, who says ‘the event offers a chance for the whole sector to explore what needs to change, and how children can have access to the most varied and vibrant stories from around the world.’

Other speakers include Books for Keeps columnists Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O’Connor, children’s editors from Thames & Hudson and Lantana, and representatives from the Stephen Spender Trust, alongside academics and literacy advocates. Workshops will be led by award-winning translators Sarah Ardizzone and Anam Zafar.

Festival organiser Dr Sophie Heywood, from the University of Reading’s Department of Languages and Cultures, explains the motivation behind the event: ‘The languages of children’s books matter because they shape how young people see the world, and themselves within it.

‘For a child who speaks Polish at home, or Urdu, or Welsh, seeing that language reflected on the page can be transformative. This festival is about recognising that the UK’s children are already multilingual, and asking what it would mean for our books to catch up.’

For researchers, teachers, publishers and advocates, it offers research-led panels, CPD-relevant sessions on multilingual literacy, and direct access to publishers and translators shaping the future of diverse children’s books.

The festival will take place on the University of Reading’s London Road Campus, with all panels also streamed online. It is co-organised by the University of Reading’s Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing and Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism, in partnership with children’s literature organisation Outside in World, as part of World Kid Lit Month.

The festival is free to attend online, with registration available here until September 16^th. After the festival, recordings of panel sessions and further information about exhibitors, associated organisations, and how readers can get involved will be available from the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing.