World's Largest Publisher of Children's Books Erases Israel from Map

Scholastic Inc. recently released this children's book, “Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt”.
It's about two mice who are invited to Egypt to explore an ancient temple.
geronimostilton.com...

The book includes a map of the Middle East.
No Palestine, no Israel, instead the area is just Jordan.

Founded in Pennsylvania in 1920, Scholastic has grown to become the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books through its book clubs, teaching resources and popular book fairs held inside many North American schools. The company has exclusive publishing rights for the Harry Potter series in the United States.

Of course the phone calls and emails they received have prompted a recall.

Kyle Good, a senior vice president for corporate communications at Scholastic, told The Times of Israel in an email that her company would stop selling the book until the error was amended in the book’s next edition.

I find it hard to believe Scholastic inc would have malicious intent here, but I'm also surprised that something this sensitive would slip by the proofreaders.
www.timesofisrael.com...

Not surprisingly, 96 percent of Palestinian school textbooks omit Israel and 87 percent of Israeli textbooks do not designate Palestinian territories on their maps.
www.timesofisrael.com...

Could Scholastic inc really be that out of touch to think no one would care?
Surely they would not have done this on purpose, right?

Knowing human nature this edition will most likely become somewhat collectable.

reply to post by tanda7


Never be surprised at what is missed in publishing. Artists like to put in little or big commentaries, and I'd suspect that's what happened here. Jordon would love to have that seafront property though.

EDIT: And look at the size of that plane! That's the real story here!

I do not like these jews and ham.
i do not like them in iran
And not in afghanistan.
I do not like these jews and ham
Achmed I am

They forgot to put the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on some map at the white house. Shows how important we are up here. Heck, some of the people in lower Michigan do not even know we are up here.

Just because the deer up here don't vote, doesn't mean we should be left off the map.

www.freep.com...

Funny she doesn't mention that Palestine isn't on the map either and it's right next door. I wonder why?

I thought maybe the issue was that it was meant to be an 'ancient' map, which of course would not show Israel. However, in reading the article, it seems that's not the case.

It's not something I think would be done on purpose to aggravate anybody. But I do find it interesting (perhaps even hypocritical) that people would be upset on behalf of Israel when so many of their textbooks omit the Palestinian territories.

Quid pro quo?

Regards,
Rewey

reply to post by tanda7


lol What people will complain about just to justify their job. I'm sure this was just an accident/mistake. I'm sure there was no malicious intent here. How many children (of that age that would read this book) do you know that even have an idea where Israel is?

This PCness is getting a little ****ing ridiculous now. We are going to have a generation of kids that are all "winners" that feel entitled.

buster2010
Funny she doesn't mention that Palestine isn't on the map either and it's right next door. I wonder why?

In the OP itself Palestine is mentioned before Israel. You must mean the headline, which perhaps was an oversight.

buster2010
Funny she doesn't mention that Palestine isn't on the map either and it's right next door. I wonder why?

Nothing to do about zero complaints! lol

Aleister

buster2010
Funny she doesn't mention that Palestine isn't on the map either and it's right next door. I wonder why?

In the OP itself Palestine is mentioned before Israel. You must mean the headline, which perhaps was an oversight.

Kyle Good, a senior vice president for corporate communications at Scholastic, told The Times of Israel in an email that her company would stop selling the book until the error was amended in the book’s next edition.

Ah, I see why she never mentioned it. The Times of Palestine never called to complain! They're too busy trying to eat and survive.

reply to post by Aleister

In the OP itself Palestine is mentioned before Israel. You must mean the headline, which perhaps was an oversight.

I'm pretty sure buster2010 was refering to the lady mentioned in the article;

Adina Golombek, a Jerusalem resident who emigrated to Israel from Canada last year, said she was shocked to discover Israel’s absence while reading the book with her 7-year-old son.

And I have to agree with superman on this one, the article is from the Israeli Times so...

reply to post by dashen


Moran.

TikkunAlex
reply to post by dashen

 

Moran.

Slichah Rebbe. Its called humor. And it's spelled "moron"

buster2010
Funny she doesn't mention that Palestine isn't on the map either and it's right next door. I wonder why?

For the same reason booking a flight to 'palestine' on an airliner website wont work, no country under that name shows up. It doesnt exist. Not as a geographically bordered area! It isnt recognized as a country with borders. Not under the name 'palestine' anyway!

That why!

reply to post by TikkunAlex


Dont mind them alex...

They did it to sell more books. The Palestinians will get mad if they call it Israel, and the Israelis will get mad if they call it Palestine.

"Screw it, let's just call it all part of Jordan. Yeah."

"Jordan it is. Get it to copy."

Or something like that.

Wait, Palestinians can't afford books in the first place, assuming one can even find a school. Who knows why they did this...

In the series, the title character is a talking mouse who lives
in New Mouse City on Mouse Island.
Can anyone tell me why Atlas books have
purposely left out Mouse City and Mouse Island ? !
This is unacceptable !
All talking mice need to
organize a revolt asp now !
Mice need to have a home land too, let no one
forget that. sue sue sue

About the books in question :
talking mouse


__________________

I guess I just don't have a conspiratorial mind. My first impression was that they weren't included because the artist didn't want to bother drawing in those tiny little countries with his Magic Marker.

reply to post by charles1952


Those Apartheid walls/borders in the West Bank sure would be quite the task to draw and color in...

Maybe you're right, that's probably why they left it out ...

Is there a single cartographer in the cosmos who could draw a universally acceptable map of the Middle East?

I thought it very telling that Dashen's delightfully wicked humour brought an extremely unedifying response from a poster who apparently wishes to be seen as a wise old testament scholar, yet falls at the first hurdle.
Does a crass one word insult constitute an acceptable response on this site?
Would the the possession of an old book and a silly hat mitigate such rudeness?
That is much more the act of a moron than the skilful parody of a well-known author being used to political ends.

You don't have to live next door to a religious maniac to feel Palestine's pain, but it probably helps.
Better still if your mad neighbour's imaginary friend had given him your garden.
Silly people, with their silly gods - make a hell out of heaven.


mistersmith.