When I go to a play, I see it as a whole. Maybe I like it, maybe not; if I'm lucky it will have intellectual content that engages me. Sometimes I'm struck by the music, maybe by the set. But I almost never understand the pieces that make up the production. Until now.
We went to visit our son Joel this summer; to a parents' program during his 6-week intensive drama program at Carnegie Mellon University. It made me think about what we do here at Behrman House, and how we share our work with you and your colleagues.The program was remarkable. I've been to too many grand finale extravaganzas, presentations intended to wow with a glitzy performance. This wasn't that. Instead, in about two hours, the school took us through all the classes these budding high school dramatists take. Movement (how to communicate with another member of the ensemble using one's body.) Speech (pronunciation, dialect, intonation, projection, and other verbal nuances.) Jazz dance (how to move what seemed like each individual part of your body independently of the rest of it). Singing, stage arrangement, all the other elements of the performance arts. What they did for us--we the amateurs--was deconstruct a production, showing us all the pieces and parts that get assembled into the whole. What before had appeared to me as either good or bad, I like it or I don't, engaging or boring, I now know to be a mosaic--the sum of a series of parts that work together to form a final production. It was an eye opener.
So I'm sitting here at my desk thinking that we do the same thing at Behrman House. Yet I'm not sure we ever share with you the full range of what we do. Strike that. I'm actually quite sure that we don't. And I'd like to change that, because we do a lot of interesting and fun things here. You, who trust us enough to use our books with your students, are entitled to know what they are. I think you'll enjoy it, and I think it will help you understand and evaluate our books more effectively.
So what do I want you to know? A lot. Although the user of a well-made textbook has a single experience, like me at the theater, that book is like carefully choreographed theater, with each dancer playing a role, interacting with other members of the troupe. I'd like you to know about the author. His or her background and experience. How we choose the manuscript, and the author, from among the most talented people and best manuscripts we can find, both within our educational community, and in the broader Jewish community as well.
There are the photographs. Did you know we have a photo library of 14,000 images? And did you know that when we can't find just the right image to convey an idea, keeping in mind that the book might be a 2nd grade holiday book, or a 9th grade history text, we commission a photo shoot, or purchase a photo from an agency? For imagery is key to creating an engaging learning experience for children. Imagery brings me to illustrations. We have no artists on staff. (We practically require our editors not to be able to draw.) We want to hire just the right artist, with the right taste and style, look and feel, for each book. Then we give the artist lots of direction, we look at pencil sketches, revised sketches, color palettes, and preliminary drawings before moving on to final art.
The activities. Activity writing is also an art. Not every author can do it. So we bring in specialists. And our editorial staff is world-class at crafting engaging, thought-provoking activities. Design is key as well. I hope you've noticed that there is no Behrman House style. We want each book to look and feel different. It needs to fit the age, and the subject matter. So we contract with outside designers, again the best in the business, to give our books a modern look and feel that will draw kids in.
Fact checking. I can't tell you how many times we read and re-read a manuscript, then copyedit it, then proofread it. Our staff is thorough. Very, very thorough. A few years ago, the emails flew fast and furious between Springfield, NJ and Israel, as Gila Gevirtz's friend Yossi made a special trip to the Shalom Tower in Tel Aviv to see if the observation deck was still open to the public. We consulted no less than three Bible scholars to ensure that it was in fact Delilah herself who cut Samson's hair. And my favorite fact-checking story of all time is when Rabbi Morrison Bial wouldn't let us use an image of a horse with a rider in its saddle because at the time depicted, stirrups hadn't been invented yet. Who knows this stuff? Our reviewers do.
That's just a small slice of what we do. I hope we can begin a conversation so that you can see what goes into our books. If there's something you'd like to know about, just drop me a note. I'll look forward to hearing from you and sharing with you some of what happens in our house.
David
