September Is #WorldKidLit Month: A Review of Don’t Cross That Line!

Several years ago, WorldKidLit Month was established to increase awareness of international literature in translation—and to make more translated titles available to English readers in North America. While the titles highlighted this month include original English-language publications from the UK, South Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand, it’s important for readers to have access to those first published in languages beside English; no list of world literature would be anywhere near complete without them.

My own translation debut was a picture book written by Isabel Minhós Martins and illustrated by Bernardo L. Carvalho, co-founders of the award-winning Portuguese publisher Planeta Tangerina. This author/illustrator team continues to create whimsical and visually striking picture books that convey deeper meanings. Don’t Cross the Line, translated by Daniel Hahn and published in the UK by Gecko Press with North American distribution by Lerner Publications, plays with the very form of the book in the development of the story. An armed soldier stands at the gutter on the verso page, preventing an increasing number of people from crossing to the right-hand page. As the left side becomes more crowded, people beg the soldier to let them pass, but he refuses. He has his orders from the general. Then a child kicks a ball to the other side…

With spare text, mostly in cartoon-style dialogue, Don’t Cross the Line narrates through subtle metafictional details a story about arbitrary authority and the importance of resistance. The gutter is an impenetrable line until someone with the courage (or innocence, or fearlessness) tests it. When pressed by the crowd, the soldier’s excuses sound increasingly flimsy and arbitrary until even he no longer believes them. The front end papers identify the characters who crowd the book, among them a soccer-playing Cristiano (a young Ronaldo, we suppose), the author and illustrator, and a ghost named Boo. The end papers at the back show the same characters transformed by their rule-breaking experience, and readers can follow each of them throughout the story in a nod to classic titles like Where’s Waldo? (an extremely popular series in Portugal). Don’t Cross the Line is a fun yet profound book, a delight for readers of all ages.