Image of the Week: Fox Release
© D. Yael Bernhard
Here's an illustration I did several years ago for what is known as a "leveled reader." If you're over 60, you probably remember the Dick & Jane "easy readers" that kids grew up with in the 1950s and 60s, which featured large type and fixed vocabulary designed to help young children learn to read. These days, that genre has blossomed into a whole industry, and is divided into grade levels – thus the books are called leveled readers.
The world of juvenile educational publishing is separate from the regular retail, or "trade," market. Usually these jobs came from a separate studio that contracted with the publisher – and when the jobs came, they moved fast. It was take it or leave it – I had to drop everything and submit sketches for six to ten illustrations within a day or two of receiving the assignment. The rest of the production schedule was just as strict, and the layout and subject matter were tightly dictated. For example: "Profile of forest ranger standing near back of van with open doors, watching family of foxes running free into the edge of the forest. Leave half of lefthand page blank for text." I might have been told what ethnicity the forest ranger must be, or what kind of hat he should wear. The type of cage mattered, too – for this leveled reader not only taught vocabulary like "wildlife," "rehabilitate," and "release" – it also taught about red foxes, their habitat, their behavior, and what people can do to help them.
Other leveled readers I've illustrated focused on different kinds of farm animals around the world; how children learn to share in a poor neighborhood in India; how tradition is passed from generation to generation in Native American tribes; and how a young Mexican girl learns to bake from her grandmother. In this age of multiculturalism, these stories reach far beyond the whitewashed picket-fence world of Dick and Jane. Though I was never given the time or money to lavish the art with great detail or inspiration, I felt I was helping to enrich young readers just by making these subjects accessible. You just never know what will make an impression on a child's mind. I strove to infuse the illu with an underlying message – the richness of other cultures, the sameness of people everywhere, the preciousness of wildlife, the beauty of nature, the normality of struggling to grow up. Children learn from visual stimulation as much as they learn from concepts and words. So I tried, with my pictures, to speak a thousand words, well beyond the limited vocabulary listed in the back of the book.
I didn't like the rigidly-defined levels. Every child is unique, and learns to read at his or her own pace – but I guess practicality rules when it comes to public education. Also, some of the stories that were based on folktales seemed to be dumbed down. Others were excessively cautious – a child playing by a lakeshore, for example, had to be shown wearing a life jacket, lest the publisher get sued if a reader happens to drown. Really?
Leveled readers are bundled into large batches and sent off to be printed somewhere in Asia. Rarely did I get a printed sample. It was "work for hire" – artwork that's bought and paid for, copyright and all. The publisher can do whatever they want with the art files, within the scope of their industry. I get to keep the originals, which have piled up along with hundreds of other children's book illustrations. Once a year I hold an open studio sale, usually at the end of August.
In the end, those red foxes released from their cage became a metaphor for how I felt when the assignment was done. Free to run in the wild forest of my imagination, I usually create something crude after a job like this – a messy charcoal drawing, for example. Delicious.
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard
http://dyaelbernhard.com
children's books • fine art • illustration
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