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Bloomsbury's Arabian Gruffalo

15.10.09 | Katie Allen

An Arabic translation of the bestselling children's book The Gruffalo is among the 17 titles being brought to the fair by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing in its launch catalogue.

BQFP, owned by the Qatar Foundation and based in Qatar's capital city Doha, and managed by Bloomsbury, has been set up to publish original titles in Arabic and English, and translations from and into both languages. Its first books will be out in April 2010. Publisher Andy Smart said getting rights to The Gruffalo translation was "a great coup". He added: "We were very happy this was still available in Arabic as there has been a lot of interest in the last few years in acquiring high-profile picture books [for Arabic translation]. I think it will work very well, although the rhyming couplet form will pose a challenge."

Also on the launch list is an English translation of Inaam Kachachi's The American Granddaughter, shortlisted for the International Arabic Prize for Fiction 2009, and the first book in a young adult list, Where the Streets Had a Name, a Palestinian adventure story by Australian author Randa Abdel -Fattah.

"We think young adult publishing is very important, as it's not provided for very well at all in Arabic publishing," Smart said.

BQFD intends to sell rights into other English-language publishers, where it has world English rights, and to build partnerships with other Arab world publishers through rights sales. "This is new for us and new for Arab publishing, but it's a principle we want to explore which would help us address the problem of different price expectations across the Arab world," Smart said.

The Bookseller Daily at Frankfurt Day Two

• Benedicte Page
• Bloomsbury
• Frankfurt Book Fair
• Katie Allen
• Rights deal