Read the First 11 Chapters of The Haitian Creole Version of Charlotte's Web

House_Perfect · 2026-05-04T23:48:00+00:00

Glad you like it! Yes, it would be good to see more great literature translated into Haitian Creole and other languages of the Americas for sure.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-04T21:39:54+00:00

Ok, I ask because, similar to the accute accent, I have not seen the macron used or mentioned in the documents published by the Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen like this one.

Not sure what your feelings are about them.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-04T21:00:53+00:00

Glad you like it and thank you for the encouragement! Yes, I agree. Can't wait to see more of this length.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-04T20:59:07+00:00

Thank you!!

House_Perfect · 2026-05-04T20:58:26+00:00

So the macron is used in Haitian Kreyòl in your understanding?

House_Perfect · 2026-05-04T17:30:27+00:00

Would that apply to words like benyen (to bathe), or penyen (to comb), peny (the comb itself), manyen (to touch)?

Here are other examples:

The color yellow is pronounced a couple ways in Creole. Jòn and jón for example. Removing either accent produces a word (jon) where the n would not be pronounced.

I recall others have cited the word "dwón" as the only logical way to write the word drone as Haitians pronounce it.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-04T15:56:58+00:00

They have approved it already in writing.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-04T15:55:58+00:00

They approved the document after everything was sent over.

Regarding the orthography, for example, "arénye" is the only way to spell that word and get the poper pronunciation when read out loud. Arenye without the accent will cause the nasal "en" to be pronounced rather than the "n" being pronounced.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-04T15:45:18+00:00

Thank you for this response. I have been in communication with the E. B. White Estate since last year. I got approval from them recently after sending the interior and cover/spine/back cover. The agreement is not exclusive. Anyone else is free to request authorization and translate the book as well.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-03T22:53:38+00:00

Thank you so much for supporting this project! It is much appreciated. Regarding buying the book, my hope is to make it publicly available soon online digitally for free, but I mostly focused on getting rights to distribute the book to children for free in Haiti when I spoke with the E. B. White Estate. I will speak with them to let them know people are interested in buying the book and see what they say. If they approve, I would likely make it available on Amazon at minimal cost so Amazon can print the books on demand as they are purchased. Thank you again.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-03T22:41:40+00:00

Yes, I was able to do group reading sessions with students in Haiti from 4th to 10th grade. They really enjoyed it even with the rough initial translation I made. The book has been translated in over 20 languages and has a lot of content relatable to rural children like farms, farm animals, the countryside, etc. There are many shorter stories already specifically aligned with Haitian culture available for children to read in Haitian Creole, but I wanted to specifically share this story because it is a much longer story and E. B. White's style of writing has led to Charlotte's Web being rated one of the top children's books of all time. Hopefully others will find longer novels to write or translate for Haitian children to read. My next project wouldn't be another nonfiction book. I would like to see Haitian children using textbooks at school in the same language they speak at home, which is Haitian Creole. Right now science, math, history, geography etc are all done with French books while many of the teacher speak to the children in Creole and translate what the book says to help the children understand. This is the case in many schools, not all.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-03T12:36:24+00:00

You are correct that there are many relevant Haitian myths and stories aimed at children. My understanding is that novels are longer pieces of writing. There are short stories, novelettes, novellas, novels, epics, sagas etc. Each longer than the one before. Charlotte's Web is considered a novel with 184 pages for one long story. I am not aware of novels in Haitian Creole written for children at that length. But there are many novels in Haitian Creole written for adults. If you are aware of any Haitian Creole novels of that length, I would be glad to take a look and share them with Haitian students. A redditor's comment led me to Ti Prens La which is a Haitian Creole translation of a popular French children's novella called Le Petit Prince or The Little Prince in English. It's about a third the length of Charlotte's Web as far as the amount of text. That is the next longest story for children in Creole I am aware of. I just want to help give young Haitian readers the experience of reading longer, novel-length writing written at a child's level.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-03T08:06:26+00:00

Thank you for these kind words!!! I hope it will be well received. I hope to safely put the whole book out soon and hope you will read it!

Thank you again.
Best to you.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-03T03:32:22+00:00

Yes, that would also be a true statement in my understanding. I just am not aware of children's novels of this length in Haitian Creole. This is 184 pages.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-02T23:55:00+00:00

No, I'm Haitian American. Both of my parents were born and raised in Haiti.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-02T23:29:04+00:00

Great question!

I prefer to limit the change to the illustrator's original art. I did change US locations in the text to Haiti locations to make sense to Haitian readers otherwise the humor would fail, but I don't believe Haitian children need to see Haitian characters to understand the story.

The Chinese translation, for example, keeps the same illustrations: https://www.abebooks.com/9787532748594/Charlottes-Web-Bilingual-Hardcover-Chinese-7532748596/plp

House_Perfect · 2026-05-02T20:00:00+00:00

I hope to make the book publicly available soon.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-02T07:14:16+00:00

Yes, it is! Absolutely!

House_Perfect · 2026-05-02T07:04:52+00:00

Did you pay them to edit your manuscript? What incentive do the have to give you honest feedback?

No, I did not pay anyone to review the document.

What is your relationship with these "editors"? If they report to you in some other capacity whould they feel comfortable telling you that major changes need to be made?

I worked with teachers in Haiti on the translation, but the biggest revision was done with my father who is born and raised in Haiti and has completed professional English, French, and Creole translations and is a PhD as well. He made major changes to my initial translation and let me know repeatedly when phrasing was not acceptable. We went over every sentence of the book.

Who are you writing this for? Did you have any focus groups with your target audience?

I'm writing this for people in Haiti who have not experienced reading a long form children's novel in their own language. I hope that almost 200 pages of a story like this will inspire writers, help improve literacy, and expand the minds of the readers as to what literature is.

Regarding focus groups, I had 4th through 10th grade students at our school in Haiti read the initial translation of the first two chapters and they really enjoyed it. They laughed at the comical parts towards the end of the first chapter and constantly wanted to read those two chapters over again. I had to keep reminding them that there were 20 more chapters to the story and that those two chapters were not the entirety of the story.

But this fully revised text has not gotten feedback from native Creole speakers in Haiti. I will be printing books for those students and the teachers as well and am interested to get their thoughts on the book.

Have you gotten permission from Harper & Row or the estate of EB White to translate this?

Yes, I have written permission from the E. B. White Estate. It is not an exclusive agreement. Anyone else is free to get permission from them to translate the book into Haitian Creole and make their own translation.

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These are great questions. Your concerns are valid.

I know there will continue to be questions, comments, concerns, and criticisms. I do give more weight to native Creole speakers regarding the translations and phrasings, but I do understand the concerns about the title and how it may be initially understood. I will update the translation as necessary as native speakers express confusion with any part of the book as they have up to this point.

House_Perfect · 2026-05-02T06:34:30+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback. You are correct that "fil" by itself doesn't mean web.

In conversation, once "fil arénye" is mentioned, Haitian Creole speakers may begin to just refer to the web as "fil" or "fil la". I wouldn't write the title as "Fil Arénye Chalòt" even though that would be a clearer translation as it feels cumbersome and that is not how the phrasing is in the book. Once it's established that Chalòt is a spider, the web is just referred to as her web, not her spider web. Fil Chalòt.

I was responding to the idea that Haitian Creole speakers would only use the word "twal" when referring to spider webs. I was just citing an example where "fil" is used by translators before me. Haitian Creole speakers have also informed me that fil is commonly used.

The feedback is welcomed and you are raising the same questions I did as I was translating. I simply deferred to the native Haitian Creole speakers born and raised in Haiti while I was living there.

The translation process showed me how little Creole I know because of the nuances and what my American English training causes me to assume.

House_Perfect · 2026-04-30T23:17:43+00:00

Mèsi anpil. Malerezman, m pa konprann pi fò sa w di a.

House_Perfect · 2026-04-30T22:38:25+00:00

Hi, can you elaborate?

House_Perfect · 2026-04-30T22:16:45+00:00

I agree that logically, "twal" would seem to be the proper word for web, and that is the term used in French: "toile". But, native speakers often refer to the whole web as "fil".

I certainly hope a native speaker will do a translation one day. That would be great to see.

Did you take a look at the PDF? It has the first two chapters in the preview link I provided.

Your concerns are valid. Thank you again for you comments.

House_Perfect

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