Books Make the Strangest Bedfellows
Quick: What do Yao Ming, Winston Churchill and Jaclyn Smith all have in common? Three guesses probably won’t suffice, so let’s cut to the chase. Two summers ago I edited a book about a boy with cerebral palsy. It is called Window Boy, and it is connecting not only these diverse and notable figures (Jaclyn probably more of a figure than the other gentlemen, although Yao has a pretty striking silhouette) but other notables also. In fact, Window Boy is getting downright Kevin Bacon-y.
If you plant good seeds in your life, good things grow. The interesting thing is that they don’t always grow where you plant them. Window Boy is more like an aspen tree, sending out beautiful runners in every direction. Window Boy tells the story of Sam Davis, a fictional boy in 1968 who should be in sixth grade but has never been allowed to go to school. Sam watches boys playing basketball out his window, and he longs to be like them. The lady who cleans his house reads to him about Winston Churchill, and Sam learns so much about him that Winnie comes to life in his head and starts encouraging him to go after his dreams of going to school like a regular boy and being involved in the basketball team. Yao, that tall Rocket, read Sam’s story. Now he’s donating copies of Window Boy to children in China who have suffered from the earthquake. Churchill’s message “Never surrender” resonates in many circumstances. Connect Yao.
But Jaclyn Smith? It turns out that Joanne Herring, recently made re-famous by the movie Charlie Wilson’s War in which she was played by the lovely Julia Roberts, thinks Window Boy would make a great movie. And, she thinks Jacklyn Smith would make a great mother for Sam. It’s perfect. But where has that angel gotten herself these days? Connect Jacklyn.
Window Boy is all about connection. The story came about because the author, Andrea White, connected to Houston’s Mayor Bill White by marriage, has a son who loves basketball (like Sam, like Yao). Andrea wanted to write about Winston Churchill so Middle Schoolers could learn how a stunningly poor student and unloved son could become the most powerful man in the world. These elements—basketball and Churchill, both rather round-- bounced around in her brain until one Sunday when she was relaxing at home. Her husband was reading the book she wanted to read, so she snuggled in with the New York Times magazine until she could get her hands back on the book. She read an article by Lisa Belkin about a little boy who had cerebral palsy and was in a mainstream kindergarten class. Suddenly, this little boy brought Winnie and basketball together in Andrea’s fertile imagination. Connect Lisa Belkin, Winston Churchill and Bill White.
Since Andrea created Sam, she has made connections with other children who are like him, and they are out making connections of their own. Andrea met a boy named Gary Lynn who also has cerebral palsy. She met him through the Rockets. Turns out that much like Sam, he is an avid sports fan. As a highschooler, he has already chaired a celebrity golf tournament to raise money for cerebral palsy. When his mother read Andrea’s story about Sam, she said it could have been written about Gary. Connect a real boy, who is out there being an advocate.
Literacy Advance honored Andrea as a Champion of Literacy, and they made the connection with Winston Churchill’s great grandson, Jonathan Sandys. Jonathan, who looks a good bit like his sainted great grand, thinks that Window Boy gives the most accurate portrait of Churchill’s character that he has ever run across. And since he runs Churchill’s Britian, an organization dedicated to keeping the memory of Churchill alive, he knows a good bit about the old chap. Jonathan had such fun in Houston, he’s relocated here. He threw a birthday bash for his great grandfather in December at Downing Street. Connect an ex-pat Brit and a cigar bar.
Another brilliant young person who also happens to have cerebral palsy appeared on the scene in Houston. Jemma Leach won a poetry contest, and her poem was lovely. She and Andrea were all set to be honored at a luncheon to raise money for the River, an arts organization that makes art experiences accessible to children who for a variety of reasons—physical conditions, economic conditions—might not be able to experience the wonders of creativity—and its ability to bring us out of our caves and into the sunlight together. Ike put the ki-bosh on the luncheon, but the connection was made.
Sam Davis, the window boy, is out there. Born of connection, he’s making new connections. And every time a new link is forged, we realize that, as Brene Brown says, “there is no us and them. There is only us.” Sam Davis, Yao Ming, Jacklyn Smith, Lisa Belkin, Gary Lynn, Joanne Herring, Andrea White, Jemma Leach, Jonathan Sandys, you and me and Kevin Bacon. Strange bedfellows. As the seeds of understanding planted by one middle school book’s inspiration blossom all around us, we’re shaving off the degrees of separation.
Only connect.
