The present article lists the main translations of Don Quixote into English and analyses five representative versions of a hilarious passage from Cervantes’s novel focusing on the strategies and methods employed by their translators. This section is followed by a reflection on the prominent cultural role played by both literary translation and classic works in an increasingly alien and hostile working environment. The creativity and inventiveness of future literary translators, it is argued, need to be developed in the classroom, and a very productive activity is the translation for children of inspiring passages from Don Quixote.