Making Book
by Janet Reed

This hilarious, biting satire centers around a feisty, idealistic teacher whose frustration with textbooks unexepctedly lands her a job as editor of a fifth grade American history book.

Ellen wants "to bring history to the people" ... like Barbara Tuchman."

She finds that creating this text is about selling to school districts while not offending any group.

She becomes outraged when forced to omit a historical figure because he had a dicey background: he drank.

Ellen gets little help from her ambitious assistant and her chic, bitter supervisor.

And the V.P. of the department, a sleazy, sexist, sexually harassing incompetent, is no help at all.

Ellen's last hope is that the author, famous historian Professor Gregory Chrichton, will come to her defense and show them all how to reach students with the book.

In a wickedly funny climax, she confronts the business of education and learns the difference between selling textbooks and teaching them children.