Ciao bella, y'all

I was cleaning out paperwork in my office the other day and came across a letter from the Italian publisher of How to Steal a Dog noting some changes that were made when the book was translated to Italian.

Among the edits they made were to "change some words that for us are too hard." That included:

-- Eliminated the word "idiot"
-- Changed "dern world" to "stupid world"
-- Changed "Mama would kill us" to "Mama would punish us"

And my personal favorite:
-- Changed "I like to died when I saw" to "I like to stink"

They also changed the following Mama's action because in their opinion "it's not a good example for young readers":

"The bread we had in the milk crate in the trunk of the car had turned green with mold and Mama tossed it out the window" was changed to "...Mama threw it in the bin."

Also thought it best to eliminate all references to religion:

-- Eliminated "My other car's a broom. Honk if you love Jesus" [a bumper sticker]  

Interesting, no?