Scholastic, the “world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books,” used a “lost in translation” excuse for leaving the entire nation of Israel off a map in one of its popular books.

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The book contained a detailed map of the Middle East, but is missing Israel – an “inadvertent” error Scholastic senior vice president for corporate communications Kyle Good claimed in a statement published on its blog Wednesday:

As you have probably heard, Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt, a title in the Geronimo Stilton series, published by Scholastic, includes a map that inadvertently omits Israel. Scholastic is immediately stopping shipment on this title, revising the map, and going back to reprint. We regret the omission which was in the original version of the book published in Italy and was translated by our company for English language distribution.

Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.

However, several commenters responding to Scholastic’s apology weren’t buying the “inadvertent” excuse:
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