March 31, 2026 Oops…. So sorry!! From Pierre’s Instagram account: Not particularly proud of the stupid mistake we made. I was going to announce the Little André book in Arab today, which is our first Arab product EVER, which is really cool! But we did something really stupid! We all know that the reading following order is the other way around from what we are used to, and we also should have swapped left and right from what we are used to… And we all knew this!! For some reason we ended up with the wrong direction. That means: We are going to shredder a thousand books and that really hurts!! It will be good in the end, but for now we have to wait a little longer. I am so sorry!

First thinking of April fools day, Shownieuws sent a reporter (Thom Goderie) to interview André and Pierre, after having checked with André that the mistake is real.

Huge blunder for the Rieu family: 'Been very stupid' March 31, 2026. Shownieuws A striking blunder for the Rieu family. André Rieu's children's book Little André and the secret of the shadow was also supposed to be published in Arabic, but something went wrong. André and son Pierre admit their mistake to Shownieuws: "Been very stupid..." The winter adventure of “Little André” has been available in no fewer than six languages for quite some time, and Arabic would become the seventh language in this list. However, this plan fell through due to a painful blunder, André and Pierre explain. "My Arabic isn't that good," Pierre jokes, somewhat embarrassedly. "And that also explains how the problem could have come about." In Arabic, you read from right to left, but in *Kleine André* children's books, the Arabic translation is written from left to right. The consequence? 1,000 unusable copies. Is there a solution for Rieu's book problem? According to father and son, fortunately, there is some light at the end of this blunder tunnel. "We have already received very nice reactions from schools where children learn Arabic," says André. The only mistake is the reading direction of the sentences, but in terms of layout and page orientation, the books are correctly formatted for Arabic, reading from right to left. Apparently, the schools can work with that. Nevertheless, son Pierre cannot completely let go of the blunder. "So, reading from back to front is still true, but... Yes, we have really just been very stupid," he expresses his regret. The world-famous violinist works closely with his son Pierre. Just last month, a video appeared of Pierre 'impersonating' his father to warn people about the increasing number of scammers on social media posing as his father. (For more information, click HERE).

Shownieuws video: March 31, 2026 Something went wrong with the Rieu family. What is going on? After conquering the whole world with his violin, a children's fairy tale book was recently published: “Little André and the secret of the shadow”, which is now already on the market in 6 languages. But now that there is a lot of interest in him in the Middle East, a version has also been made in Arabic, the 7th language. So, what is the situation? 1,000 books have already been printed that cannot be shipped. The Arabic language reads from right to left, and that is also how you turn the pages. That is where it went wrong. It was printed the wrong way around. Sh.n: We immediately sent our reporter Thom Goderie to Maastricht to investigate how things could have gone so wrong. TG: My Arabic isn't that good, but what went wrong? AR: Just ask Pierre about that. PR: My Arabic isn't that good either, and that explains the problem. We deal with 7 languages, and in all the other languages, the layout and page numbering were roughly the same. With this book, it suddenly struck me that the order of the illustrations was wrong. If I hadn't seen it in time, we would have sold them right away. But of course, it's not right. TG: How many books are here? PR: 1000. TG: What are you going to do with them now? AR: We are getting a lot of reactions now, including from schools that teach Arabic. The only mistake is that you have to turn the pages differently. PR: We were very stupid. Sh.n.: Yes, at first, we thought it could be an April Fool's joke, and that's why we checked with André before sending Thom to Maastricht.

The video in Dutch) will be added later on.

Not an April Fool's joke, but a stupid mistake: 1,000 copies of Rieu book printed incorrectly April 1, 2026, De Limburger, by Sarah De Groof The book Little André has already received multiple translations in the past: English, German, Spanish, French, and Polish. The intention was to add Arabic to that as well, but that version will have to wait a little longer for the time being, Pierre Rieu, André's son, announced this on his Instagram account. Left and right "We are not proud of our stupid mistake," Rieu begins his video. Because a thousand Arabic translations are now ending up in the trash. "We all know that the way of reading is the other way around in the Arabic language. So, we should have swapped the pages. But still, it went wrong," says Rieu’s son. "This means that 1,000 books are going into the paper shredder." Not an April Fool's joke It is not an April Fool's joke, he further explains, but it is a stupid mistake. Fortunately, there are saviors in need: for instance, Vista College has expressed interest in the incorrectly printed books. So, the Arabic version will have to wait a little longer for the time being.