In this dissertation, the author deals with three questions. The first is Which is the real 'weight' (in terms of quantities) of foreign production in the Italian children's book market? To answer this question, the author goes through a rapid description of children's publishing in Italy during the last ten years, but also the concrete case of an Italian publishing company specialised in collections for a young audience is considered: Adriano Salani Editore. The second question is What does it mean to translate for children? The question involves two different perspectives, the editor's and the translator's. The last question is Which are the contraints imposed on a text that enters the children's system? This issue concerns directly the investigation of translational phenomena moving from the text itself. The Italian version of Roald Dahl's "The twits" - "Gli Sporcelli" is chosen as a case for a descriptive translation study. As second term of comparison, the author sometimes uses the French translation.