abstract foreign and iranian cultures are far distinct in the constraints imposed on writing and translating for children, since the iranian literary system is mainly concerned with cultural and religious instructions which lead to manipulation of translated texts. this study sought to identify the cultural and social constraints and norms which determined the strategies applied in the translation of childrens novels. to this end, three english novels by roald dahl: "the big friendly giant", "matilda" and "charlie and chocolate factory" and their translations were selected. examples were collected, classified and analyzed based on bastins (2005) adaptation model. the findings indicated that the norms more frequently applied in translating childrens novels are cultural adequacy, transcription, creation and exoticism to adjust the translations to be in accord with the parents approval and what they want their children to be exposed to.