Behrman House: About Us: Open Lion Spring 2003: The Great Israel Scavenger Hunt

About Us: Open Lion Spring 2003

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Spring 2003

The Great Israel Scavenger Hunt
By Gila Gevirtz

[Cover] Oy, I told the designer he'd have the manuscript in two hours, and I haven't heard from Yossi yet. My panic had been sparked by the fact checker's note on page 56 of the The Great Israel Scavenger Hunt manuscript, describing the view of Tel Aviv from the Shalom Tower observatory. The note said, "I think the observatory has been closed."

Oh, no! That means I'll have to revise half the chapter. Stay calm, maybe the fact-checker's wrong, or maybe it's just temporarily closed. Quick, call Yossi. He'll know.

Yossi Lando is an Israeli educator and Jerusalem tour guide. He's one of our Israeli fact checkers. I called him. "I'll be in Tel Aviv soon and I'll check it out," he said.

"No, I can't wait! Please call someone in Tel Aviv and e-mail me right away," I begged. Desperate, I kept checking my e-mail. Finally, 21 hours later, it arrived: "Sorry, Gila, the Shalom Tower observatory is permanently closed. Yossi"

The mad dash was on: I had an hour and a half left to revise the manuscript and e-mail it to the designer.

Bee-line to the Behrman House research library. Whip out a map of Tel Aviv. Revise the tour to start from the north and move southward. Okay, that's it: Dizengoff Center, Habimah Theater, the Carmel Market, Shalom Tower, and Jaffa. Bingo! No stop at the observatory. Done, and just in time!

The road traveled from the birth of an idea to a published Behrman House book is a long, loving—and sometimes nerve-racking—journey that often spans three to five years. During those years many drafts are written by the author and many revisions made by the editor. Expert readers—scholars, educators, rabbis, and developmental psychologists, and Behrman House staff—evaluate and refine the manuscript; designers, illustrators, and photo researchers enrich and illuminate the written page; copyeditors attend to the final tweaking; and printers make use of the advanced technologies of the book manufacturing industry.

Along the way, details need to be checked and rechecked, errors corrected, and emergency calls made to rabbis at their synagogues, to experts in Israel, and to educators throughout the country.

We think it makes all the difference to our books, and to the children who learn from them. We hope you agree.

Gila Gevirtz is Executive Editor of Behrman House.

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