The Translation of Children’s Books into Malay:

An Analysis of Publication Trends

Abstract

Studies have shown that translation has always been integral in stimulating and expanding the children’s book industry in Malaysia. Historically, translation was the starting point to provide the necessary reading materials for children in Malaysia pre- and post-independence, although this was not necessarily exclusive to this country. For a long time, childhood was a foreign concept to many parts of the world, and children were considered merely as an extension of adults. Due to this lack of understanding about children and their special needs in the critical growing period, there were limited reading materials for children, and folklore passed through generations through oral rendering was their main source of entertainment. However, the children’s book industry has grown exponentially, including in Malaysia. An overview of the history of children’s book publications has shown that this information provides critical information about the current education landscape, social norms, and national policies. Thus, the objective of this study is to describe the trends in the translation of children’s literature into Malay between 2005 and 2024 with a focus on genres and source languages. Data from this study was collected from the National Library’s Open Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). The study found the most published genres in the past 20 years are comics, educational books, and picture storybooks. Although English remains the main source language of translation into Malay, there has been a significant increase in translation from Chinese and Indonesian. Finally, the study also identified Institut Terjemahan dan Buku Malaysia (ITBM) as the main publisher of translated children’s books in Malay.