New website offers Chinese children's books on COVID-19

LifeTreeBooks.org.cn, a multilingual website offering Chinese children's books related to the novel coronavirus, was launched in April, offering free literary works in 11 languages.

Brazilian illustrator Roger Mello, winner of 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award, designed a poster for the website titled "We Are Family".

Some of the titles on the website include A Brief History of Viruses for Children, Different Spring Festival and 10 Ways to Fight Monsters, which have been translated into English, German, Spanish and other languages.

Zhang Mingzhou, president of the International Board on Books for Young People, initiated the project in March and launched the website on April 2.

Zhang said the non-profit organization is promoting the website through its members in 80 countries. Publishers from countries such as Malaysia, Pakistan and Mongolia have expressed willingness to translate these books into Malay, Urdu and Mongolian, he added.

The building of the website and the translation of the books was an effort by many publishers and translators, he said.

"Out of a score of 100, I would give this effort at least 110 points," said Zhang, praising the timely and professional translation provided by around 200 teachers and students from Shanghai International Studies University's Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation.

Wu Gang, the vice dean of the institute and vice chairman of Shanghai Translators Association, said: "This was the first time our teachers and students of all departments worked together. All of us view this as our way of helping to fight against COVID-19."

"Children's books contain 'magic powers'. They can bring children happiness, satisfaction and strength and help them better understand COVID-19," said Zhang Yanran, a student leader from the Spanish translation team.

Qian Yue, a student from the Japanese translation team, said he was most impressed by the book A Trip of Nine Thousand Millimeters, which tells the story of an adventure experienced by children during their home quarantine while their parents were hospitalized.

"The scene where the children find a hairpin with the smell of mum under the sofa really moved me. I hope children who are apart from their parents can resonate with that," she said.

Li Hong contributed to this story.