Submissions
International Translated Children's Stories: Book Review Submission Form Guidelines
Thank you for your interest in submitting a book review of a translated story for children. We greatly appreciate your contribution and are grateful for your time and support of our project. Your review will be credited to you, i.e., your name and, if you wish, your affiliation as well will appear under the respective contribution. Please complete the following field with metadata used by our reviewers and enter your review. We review all types of works, including fairy tales, contemporary stories, graphic novels and comic books, picture books, poetry, nursery rhymes, and so on.
Below are reviewing guidelines.
1. Please only submit reviews of books that you personally read in full.
2. Your review should be approximately 250-300 words; however, sometimes, it's justified going a little over or staying a little under the limit.
3. Include a plot summary.
4. Mention the country of origin and reiterate the language; we have a metadata field for Original Language; however, your review will make the geographic origin of the story more accurate and help us collocate stories written in the same language in different world regions.
5. Include some appeal elements related to both the story, the reader, and the interplay between readers and stories.
6. Note some things to pay attention to, such as possible triggers (e.g., things that may be disturbing, sad, scary, or unsettling for some readers), as well as potentially sensitive or controversial topics.
7. Highlight distinct cultural characteristics and international qualities of the story; those are interesting, exciting, and educational; some elements may also require explanation for North American readers.
8. Address the language of the story and the quality of translation.
9. Despite the fact that age is reflected in metadata, please, say a few words about the age appropriateness of the story with regard to both the content and the level of difficulty/language.
10. Mention the format in which you reviewed the book (print, audio, e-book, Braille, etc.)
11. Mention the publisher of the item you've reviewed. After much discussion, we decided not to create a metadata field for the publisher, recognizing that there may be different publishers for the same story; instead, we decided to focus on the content and aesthetics; however, it would be useful to address this information in the review text.
12. Sometimes, it is useful to check a few short expert reviews of the book, especially, if you're reviewing a book with the history and origins of which you're not familiar; these reviews may include factual information about the title and/or the author. Short reviews may be readily available on Amazon, other freely accessible online sources, or library databases available to you. Sometimes, you may have a greater expertise than reviewers who work for the above venues; and/or you may notice inaccuracies in these reviews. Please point them out as it's beneficial for library staff and educators; alternatively, if you found these reviews useful, you may use information from them in your review; in this case, please mention it and provide citations and URLs for these reviews. We do not expect this field to be present in every review.
13. Indicate if the book is bilingual or multilingual.
14. Anything else you consider important.
15: Optional: if you have a programming idea for this title or a promotional/marketing idea, please share it with us below in the allocated field.
Please contact the project coordinator, Dr. Keren Dali, at keren.dali@du.edu if you have any questions.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!
Download the form (Word document):