The Bite of the Mango European Tour

Authors Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland are in London, England today to start a five-country European tour to promote the launch of the British, German, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish editions of The Bite of the Mango. Wow...!

Susan will return home after Germany and Mariatu's surrogate aunt in Toronto, Kadi, will join Mariatu for the remainder of the tour. In each of these countries, the publishers have arranged print, TV and radio interviews, school visits and public readings. It is really heart-warming to see how the world is embracing Mariatu and her remarkable story of overcoming the loss of her hands to rebel soldiers in her native Sierra Leone. The sad thing is, this is not just Mariatu's story, but the story of so many amputees in Sierra Leone who were the victims of unimaginable atrocities during the civil war in their country. We wish Mariatu, Susan, and Kadi a rewarding trip and look forward to hearing their stories and seeing their photo on their return at the end of this month.

Susan and Mariatu are grateful to have received a Travel Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to assist in this trip.

Stay tuned for images of the different covers from the foreign editions of The Bite of the Mango...

Math for Mom and Me

A little rambling on my roots: I rarely think about the fact that my ancestry is Chinese, but recently there’s been some excitement surrounding that culture. The Olympics? Maybe for some. But for me, it was the arrival of the Complex Chinese version of The Great Number Rumble in my mailbox, and on its heels, the news of an impending deal for Simplified Chinese rights.

Finally, I can show my mother what I spent almost all of my spare time doing the last 3 years! Her English is bare bones, and my Chinese is … well, let’s call it immature (to give me some credit, I found the character for my last name easily enough)…so our conversations are rather limited in their scope and depth. I showed her the North American and Korean editions, but this one’s different – she’ll actually be able to read it! So that takes care of one mystery for her. Now to explain what I do with the rest of my life: how does one say “regulatory documentation for the biopharmaceutical industry” in Chinese?

Cora Lee

author of The Great Number Rumble

The Little Black Book for Girlz goes to Italy!

We've just received the Italian edition of The Little Black Book for Girlz - hooray! Annick published this daring, cool, informative book on healthy sexuality for teen girls in 2006 and we’ve sold publication rights to four other publishers around the world – Arcana in Italy; Random House in Germany; Milan in France; and Editions Enfants in Quebec. What’s so cool about this book? It’s written by teen girls for teen girls so addresses the real questions girls ask each other. (But of course it’s also vetted by health experts to ensure the info is accurate…). It was a project of St. Stephen’s Community House, a community-based social service agency in Toronto. Check ‘em out: http://www.ststephenshouse.com/

But back to the groovy Italian edition…

It’s so interesting to see how a publisher in a different market will package the same book. Check out the Italian cover next to the Annick cover below. Very different, huh?

There's been lots of talk around the table at tea time and we all notice how confident and sassy the girl is on the Italian cover. There's a chick who's comfortable with herself and her sexuality! You go, Girl.

The other editions won’t be published for another year or so, but when we have the covers, don’t worry, we’ll stick ‘em up here!