A considerable number of interesting and controversial studies about translation issues have been published during the past decade, sparked by a fundamental rethinking of the structure and function of language and literature. Poststructuralist, feminist, and systems theory approaches to translation theory have redirected perspectives and played havoc with established values systems. Few scholars have worked within the special field of translating children's literature from any theoretical perspective. The Finnish scholar, teacher, translator, and illustrator Riitta Oittinen has filled a gap with her published dissertation. Based on polysystems theory and dialogism, Oittinen is more interested in the broad picture of cross-cultural communication and on the processes that are at work in translation than on morphological, syntactic, or semantic detail, which tends to make her argumentation abstract at times.
Children read texts differently than do adults, and they also like different texts than do adults.
Finnish research from 1984 on children's and adults' favorite children's books, mentioned by Oittinen, revealed that the tastes of adults and children tend to be quite different. Oittinen concludes that we should undo power relationships and hierarchies of status by listening to children and by truly entering into a dialogue with them. As we judge translations of children's literature, Oittinen suggests that we need to pay attention not only to the text itself but to metalinguistic and paratextual elements, such as the translator's socio-cultural baggage, the layout and illustrations in children's books, and the rhythm of texts. Rhythm becomes especially important in picture books that will likely be read aloud to children. Prime among the metalinguistic components influencing translation is the translator's concept of childhood.