Miki’s First Errand and Harry still has the magic!

Harry Still Has the Magic A recent survey by toymaker Bandai found that the Harry Potter series are still the most popular books among Japanese elementary school students. Though it only ranked 4th among the younger students, who prefer cartoon hero Anpanman, it easily topped the overall rankings of 2,000 six to 12 year-olds. Other familiar titles included a couple of classic picture books that have been around since the 1960s: the “Guri & Gura” series (4th) and Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” (6th). Source: ELT news

RIC takes Amazon Japan by Storm!

RIC Publications Asia are delighted with the success of their first foreign title to appear on Amazon Japan. Japan’s biggest online bookstore included the first RIC StoryChest title – “Miki’s First Errand” (Hajimete no Tsukai) – as their lead title in its Japanese book section yesterday. “This finally puts RIC on the publishing map in Tokyo!” said President John Moore. The picture book, which comes with a CD, was written by Yoriko Tsutsui and illustrated by Akiko Hayashi, and translated by Peter Howlett and Richard McNamara. It reached an impressive sales ranking of 138. RIC Publications Asia web site. (September 05, 2003 )