The Pilot and the Little Prince

I was listening to the wonderful Cerys Matthews on her Sunday morning radio show on Radio 6 (if you’ve never tuned into this, I urge you to do so – it’s very eclectic music including a live session, as well as poetry and recipes!) and this week she chatted to somebody at Pushkin Press. This Press translates books, children’s included, from a number of foreign languages into English and as today International Translation Day has been celebrated, I thought I’d share one of Pushkin Press’s translated books with you. I don’t own it, but would dearly like to do so as this is the illustrated life story of Antoine de Sainte-Exupery and I’m a huge fan of his, particularly his book The Little Prince.

‘The Pilot and the Little Prince’ is written by Czech-born, American Peter Sís and charts the life, final flight and disappearance of Saint-Exupery: adventurer, dare-devil, aviator, writer and illustrator. Just like The Little Prince, Sís’s book can be read on many levels so works perfectly for both children and adults.

Visit the shop of Pushkin Press to see other children’s books translated to English from their original language, including the exquisitely illustrated ‘The Letter for the King’ by Tonke Dragt (translated from its original Dutch by Laura Watkinson). This book was discussed by Cerys Matthews on Sunday and the story of one boy’s battle against evil has even been named as the best children’s book of the past 50 years.