Monday, June 21, 2010

Book Sharing Monday - Ulysses Moore, farewell!

A few weeks ago I posted about an audiobook we were planning to listen to, The Door to Time.  Originally written in Italian by P.D. Baccalario, the series is comprised of nine books.  Four of them have been translated into English, and the publisher, Scholastic, doesn't plan to translate the rest of the books!  (Insert much weeping and gnashing of teeth here.)

We are currently listening to disc two (of four) in the last translated book, The Isle of Masks.  The series has been fun and engaging for all three of my children (who range in age from 5 to 12, with quite different personalities and tastes), and I've enjoyed listening along, as well, plus we've recommended the series to other families, some of whom got a taste of the story by being in the car with my children going somewhere or other over the course of the last few weeks.

Paul Debraski, librarian and blog author of I Just Read About That, is trying to get a grass roots campaign going to convince Scholastic to translate and publish the remaining books in the series.  The contact person at Scholastic is Linda Schenker, and she can be reached at LSchenker@Scholastic.com.  Visit Paul's site to see what he had to say to her.  I've already sent email to both Scholastic and Brilliance Audio, who release the audiobooks here in the U.S., but plan to send another email to Scholastic addressed specifically to Ms. Schenker and one to Scholastic UK (SCBenquiries@scholastic.co.uk), just to cover all my bases.

I was thinking we might have to learn Italian as a family to finish the rest of the series, but books 5 & 6 have been translated into French and German (and are available through amazon.co.uk), as well, so we may very well have several options for foreign language study now.  I had a year of French in college, but we have several German-speaking friends, so I don't know which is the best way to go.  Jazz is, of course, hoping the books will be a) translated into Japanese and b) made into a movie by Hayao Miyazaki.  ☺

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Serendipity Homeschool.

2 comments:

l said...

I find sometimes listening to books is better. I mentioned this series to my son (11) and he is interested in reading or listening to it, once he is finished with reading Harry Potter. Thanks for sharing your link :)

Christina said...

Alex, IMO the series would be a great panacea for readers who have PHPS (post-Harry-Potter-syndrome). : ) I just hope there's *some* closure at the end of book 4!