The European Commission has approved a deal under which Bertelsmann’s Circulo de Lectores book club in Spain will now be controlled jointly by the German media group and Spain’s Planeta.
Dow Jones
The LAT had an interesting feature on Scholastic‘s efforts to translate select books from their list into Arabic. “Over the last three years, almost 17 million copies have been shipped from a plant in Missouri to elementary schools across the Middle East and North Africa. The State Department “paid for translations through a democracy-building initiative and for printing about half the books.”
Scholastic vp Carol Sakoian says, “arents in these countries are like parents everywhere. They want their children educated, and this is basic stuff. Spiders, penguins and alligators do not belong to America.” Consultation with education ministers from Bahrain, Lebanon and Jordan helped produce a list of 27 things to avoid in adjusting Scholastic’s titles for this audience. “No dogs, no pigs, no boys and girls touching, no magic,” Sakoian said. The story notes: “They liked values and talk of honesty and cooperation among children. Anything that hinted at overly independent children or religion was eliminated. The colorful I Spy series was excluded after a tiny dreidel was spotted in a picture.”
LAT
As Faber’s Academy for writers expands to Canada in September, the Globe and Mail looks at the program. “Part of Faber’s draw is what organizer Patrick Keogh describes as ‘inspirational venues.'”
Globe and Mail