"M" is for Masterpiece: Richard Michelson's new children's book celebrates Jewish ethics, religion, and culture  
By Judy Polan

NORTHAMPTON -- When Richard Michelson -- owner of Northampton's R. Michelson Galleries and award-winning poet and children's book author - was approached in 2006 by Sleeping Bear Press with the idea of writing a book as part of their multicultural alphabet books series - to be titled,. "A is for Abraham" -- he considered the offer cautiously.

Over the years, having garnered numerous honors including a New Yorker Best Book Award, a Jewish Book Council Book of the Month citation, and a Children's Book Committee Book of the Year Prize, he has honed a reputation for creating books that tell stories of significance, exquisitely illustrated with high quality paintings, pencil drawings, and watercolors. His gallery, in fact, represents many of the most renowned illustrators in children's publishing - artists such as Jules Feiffer, Maurice Sendak, Mordicai Gerstein, Karla Gudeon, and Springfield's own Dr. Seuss.
If Michelson was going to take on the project, he wanted the volume to be a work of art that would live up to his own exacting standards; he also wanted to have the latitude to address serious subjects in the whimsical spirit that has become his trademark. He had never before written a book wherein the format had been predetermined by the publisher. From Sleeping Bear's point of view, however, they had a popular and successful series on their hands, and no desire to alter its basic formula. 
Michelson was used to writing in an impressionistic manner wherein "the form of my narrative takes shape organically, driven more by the story line than by a superimposed structure. I wasn't convinced that I'd be able to assume the 'mind frame' necessary to work within the constraints of a pre-set format." 
The title of the book (also tightly formatted, so that it would be in conformance with the other titles in the series) gave him serious pause; he felt that it might connote something less sophisticated than what he was going after. 
"I wanted to write a book that would give me room to spread my wings, and wouldn't be too simple. Picture books," he asserts, "combine the two great passions of my life - literature and art; I love the world of fine press books, which continues to combine art and literature for audiences of all ages, with no apologies."
He soon realized, though, that writing an alphabet book for Jewish children and their families would be a project replete with unique possibilities, and a creative departure from his more recent books such as "Across the Alley," "Too Young for Yiddish" (cited by The Detroit Jewish News as "one of the top 25 best Jewish children's books ever published") and his much-lauded 2008 release "As Good as Anybody: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel's Amazing March Toward Freedom."
"I really lucked out on the release date of that one," he jokes. "The timing couldn't have been better, with the Obama campaign picking up steam at that very moment. And - of course - the whole country lucked out when he got elected!"
In the end, Michelson found the "A is for Abraham" offer irresistible. 
And then came tsouris. 
The enormity of the task at hand began to hit him. How in the world would one go about choosing a single Jewish-themed word to represent each letter of the alphabet? He began to jot down some possibilities. For "E" the choices spanned everything from Ellis Island and Einstein to emigrants and Brooklyn's beloved Ebbets field; "C" offered the options of challah, chicken soup, Chanukah, chai or charoset, among many others. Or should Chanukah be spelled Hanukkah, and moved to the page for the letter "H", which also offered the possibilities of words such as Hebrew and High Holy Days? But if he included Hebrew, and used "Y" for Yiddish, then how could he omit Ladino or Sephardic? However, "L" was rich with so many other possibilities: latkes, l'chaim, lox, lost tribes, and liturgy. And how could "S" not stand for Shabbat, sukkah, shalom, or Sh'ma? 
"The list got completely unwieldy," Michelson notes. "I worked for months writing verses for the individual pages, often cramming three or four words under each letter. It felt extremely disorganized; each poem got crowded with information that didn't necessarily connect to make a greater whole. I was overwhelmed by choices, and became completely stymied; I was going round and round in circles."
Enter Michelson's "wonderful editor, Aimee Jackson," who made a suggestion that, in his mind, "rescued the project." She encouraged him to approach the entire endeavor differently: to create a list of the 26 things he felt would be most important for any reader -- young or old, Jewish or not -- to know about Jewish-American history, culture, and religion. Thus each letter would become an opportunity to initiate a discussion of a specific topic. The information would be presented in a charming and child-friendly manner in the main text, accompanied not only by stunning illustrations but also by detailed sidebars on each letter's page, some of them almost encyclopedic in their wide-ranging content.
"So," Michelson reflects, "I began a long rethinking process, which was much like putting together a puzzle. For example, I grouped foods under one letter, literary arts under another, prayer and holidays under another, Jewish sports heroes under another, and so on. If one letter changed, I had to shift numerous other letters. It became addictive! I can't tell you how many nights I fell asleep or woke up trying to fit the puzzle pieces together. Then, of course, I needed to achieve the right balance of seriousness and fun; I wanted to be respectful but a bit playful at the same time."
Already an accomplished serious poet (his first book, Tap Dancing for the Relatives, was praised by Nobel Laureate Elie Weisel as "deeply moving") Michelson wanted to make the poetry in "Abe" simple enough for young children, yet rhythmically and conceptually interesting enough for older children and a general audience as well.
Editor Aimee Jackson says of Michelson, "I could go on for pages about Rich and the writing of 'Abe.' Rich is simply amazing to work with. That man - you can say anything to him! He takes criticism in such good spirit, and he takes it seriously and constructively. He jokes about being one of my favorite authors, but, really, he is. Of course," she adds, "he argues when necessary, or digs deeper into research. He will debate points and will stick to his guns; but he doesn't resent feedback, in fact he seems to thrive on it."
"We had some very tough decisions to make in this book - what stays what goes - we had to pull letters and whole pieces of art in the eleventh hour. Rich and I spent many late nights and weekends, debating, discussing ... the Holocaust issue for example - we went back and forth, back and forth. It's an issue that should not be introduced too early to young children - we were sensitive to that - but it obviously couldn't be ignored either."
In March 2008, two years after the project began, Michelson sent out final drafts to rabbis, educators, and friends for vetting. "And ... oy vey ..." he chuckles. "Reform rabbis found some of the commentary too traditional; Orthodox Rabbis found it too liberal. Some loved the book's whimsy and praised its 'kid-friendliness', others found the humor bordering on disrespectful." (Michelson disagrees with this assessment -- he never wanted to create a dry Jewish textbook; he wanted to "honor the tradition, while having some fun.") 
Everyone seemed to have a suggestion about a topic that "definitely should have been included." Some thought the book was "too Jewish,' and should be revised so as to reach as wide an interested non-Jewish audience as possible. Others felt he should have gone more deeply into religious practices, and geared the book more toward observant Jews. "I used to say 'two Jews, three opinions,'" Michelson laughs, "but now I know that two Jews have at least ten opinions! But I have a thick skin and actually found the responses both amusing and helpful."
Once the final draft of the text was completed, it was time to bring in the illustrator. Somewhat surprisingly to the uninitiated, the industry standard in the case of children's books is for the publisher to choose the illustrator, and for author and artist to have virtually no direct contact. Ron Mazellan, a multi-award-winning illustrator whose lush, classical painting style simultaneously conveys strength and gentleness, was chosen to do the pictures for "A is for Abraham." 
Mazellan had previously illustrated "The Harmonica," a true story of a child's experience living through the Holocaust. He asserts that his life was forever changed by his involvement in this project, because of the "the agonizing and difficult research" it required of him; he believes strongly that the illustrator's role is "not simply to observe the story, but to become it". He also, though, found himself feeling uplifted by his work on The Harmonica; "it informed me that hate can indeed be overcome through good. 
Even though I am not Jewish," he comments, "I deeply respect the history, the people and the principles of this culture, which has continually strengthened our global society through its focus on family, faith and tradition." 
"A is for Abraham," he adds, "was challenging, but I viewed the book quite differently -- it is a bright and hopeful manuscript. It embellishes the celebratory color of faith and the valued tradition of family. It holds fast to principles that bring an optimistic vision to our world -- a world that seems to be reaching out for stability and hope, now more than ever."
Recently honored as a book of the month selection by the PJ Library (a countrywide literary outreach project of the Springfield-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation), "A is for Abraham" appears to be inexorably headed for greater regional, national and even international recognition. Sophisticated yet accessible and child-friendly, whimsical yet respectful, offering a multi-dimensional understanding of Judaism relatable to people of all ages and faiths, stunningly beautiful, and encyclopedically informative without being at all pedantic, the book holds the promise of becoming a genuine classic. 
The typically self-effacing Michelson makes no claim to have set his sights on creating a masterpiece of children's literature; rather his objective in writing "A is for Abraham" was quite personal and straightforward.
"Although I have always felt deeply Jewish in a cultural sense, I grew up with no religious education of any kind," he said. "I always wanted to write a book that would have been helpful to me when I was a youngster, and later on to my own children, when they were young." 
It would appear that Michelson has accomplished this goal, and then some.


<I>Writer and musician Judy Polan (www.judypolan.com) is recipient of a 2005 First Place Award for Excellence in Journalism (CT Society of Professional Journalists). Judy is the proud niece of author Dorothy K. Kripke, whose 1953 book Let's Talk about God is considered to be one of the icons of American Jewish children's literature.

(c) Judy Polan  2008
Jewish Ledger of Western Massachusetts</I>

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