While other studies have examined 'localizations' of terminology, grammar, punctuation, etc. from British to American English in best-selling popular fiction such as the Harry Potter series, and from American to British in literary classics such as The Great Gatsby, one of the most obvious needs for language localization may be in children's books.

A young reader learning how Maisy takes baths (Photo: J. Hopkins, 2002)

Young children will mainly have learned their language from that spoken within their families. Family discourse would not usually include other varieties of World English. Books intended for children should use terms that reflect the cultural environment in which the children are living.

Following are several examples of food (and other) differences between SBE and SAE from two children's books.

Teatime, Maisy!, by Lucy Cousins

The first example is from the 'Maisy' ['Maisa' in Finnish] series by the British author Lucy Cousins. Maisy (or Maisa) is familiar to many Finns via her television episodes on YLE-TV1, as well as from the many Maisy books which have been translated into Finnish.

At left below is the cover of the original (British) edition of Teatime, Maisy!. As English 'teatime' is not a concept in the U.S., the American edition (shown at right below) was 'localized' to Snacktime, Maisy!.

As this was a 'cloth book' which otherwise consisted only of pictures, without a descriptive text (see sample pages below center), there was no further need to localize the book, as the pictures all showed foods, drinks and kitchen scenes that would look familiar to almost all children in Britain and America, even if these things might be referred to differently in each country. Whoever reads the book can use the terms that are familiar to them. Interestingly, this is one of the few Maisy/Maisa books not to have been translated for the Finnish market.

   

The original British (L) and 'translated' American (R) covers of Teatime/Snacktime, Maisy!, with two sample pages (C)
Image sources: (L&C) Amazon.co.uk; (R) Amazon.com

Topsy and Tim's Picnic, by Jean and Gareth Adamson

Other examples can be seen in Topsy and Tim's Picnic, by Jean and Gareth Adamson (© 1978, Blackie and Son Ltd. Glasgow). Look at the two scanned extracts below. There is no U.S. edition of this book, but had there been one, much of the book would need to have been changed, as the original language would be barely understandable by American children (or adults). Explanations of some of the differences are offered under each image.

The story line thus far is that Topsy and Tim were planning on having a picnic with their Mummy, who then stepped on one of Tim's roller skates and fell . . .

In the first paragraph above, the British 'Mummy' would normally be "Mommy" in the U.S. This would probably have been changed for a U.S. edition, but as such is not a problem in understandability. But what follows is: 'elevenses' is unknown in SAE. In SBE 'elevenses' normally refers to a late-morning cup of tea or coffee with a chocolate 'biscuit' (U.S. 'cookie') or equivalent. In SAE it would probably be just a 'snack' or similar.

Then, Topsy and Tim mixed 'squash' (GB: a sweet, fruit-flavored drink). In the U.S. this reference to fruity drinks is largely unknown; rather 'a squash' (GB 'marrow', FIN 'kesäkurpitsa') is a vegetable; there is no commonly-known connection to a drink, fruity or otherwise. The British Robinson's Orange Squash, for example, is marketed in the U.S. as Robinson's Orange Fruit Drink. Finally, rather than 'they buttered and jammed some bread', Americans would normally say something similar to 'they put butter and jam on some bread'; in SAE one can have 'buttered' bread, but not 'jammed' bread (unless the slice of bread had been 'jammed' into some tight place).

On the left-side page above, two other food terms also present problems. The text describes Topsy and Tim choosing 'tomato sauce' and 'hundreds and thousands' to eat. In SAE, 'tomato sauce' is quite distinct from 'ketchup' or 'catsup' (and the shape of both the bottle on the table and its Heinz label make it clear that this is what it is).

But while the SBE 'tomato sauce' is just misleading in SAE, 'hundreds and thousands' would be completely unknown. In SAE these are usually referred to as 'nonpareils' or 'sparkles' or 'sprinkles'. On the other hand, 'spaghetti hoops' would be the same in SBE and SAE, this being the brand name of another Heinz product.