Window Boy

Reviewed by Neha Kashmiri (age 13) for Reader Views (7/08) To me, "Window Boy" was a sad, but strangely uplifting, novel in hectic times. Sam Davis is a twelve-year-old boy with cerebral palsy. His father has abandoned him; his mother is too absorbed with her new boyfriend to notice Sam most of the time. In all this, his three beams of light are his prim, if talkative nurse, Miss Perkins, the imaginary voice of Winston "Winnie" Churchill, and the basketball court almost in his backyard. Sam gets the chance to go to school with the other children. At first it is a disaster but Winnie tells Sam to keep a stiff upper lip. Soon, as his teacher starts to understand him, Sam writes an essay on his hero, Winston Churchill, for a contest. On his twentieth and last day of school, he gets out the words to tell the captain of the basketball team to appoint Micky Kostov, a Russian boy no one likes, as point guard. Then he is taken to an institution by his mother who is leaving to Europe to marry her boyfriend. Sam starts to slowly fade away when the news reporter comes to take his picture and write an article about him. The essay he had written long ago had won him the contest and $1,000. Finally, his mother, betrayed and deceived by the man she was about to marry, comes back and saves him. Later Sam goes on to become a basketball coach to the team he helped become tournament champs. No words I could say or write could convey the impact of the book on me. As a librarian's assistant, I had read to special-need children and this book made me feel incredible guilt and anger at myself for the revulsion I felt at the sight of some of them. "Window Boy" by Andrea White is meant for kids and teenagers, but I think adults could benefit just as greatly from it. I give a high, high recommendation to someone looking for a break from action/horror/fantasy.

Don't you love finding a book that draws you back to re-read it almost immediately? Besides the second read, I've gone back, this month, to the "Afterward" of WINDOW BOY a third time! Like our hero, Sam Davis, I want to learn more and more about the unique strength and humanity of Winston Churchill. So, I'll definitely tune in to the new PBS three part series "Chasing Churchill: Searching for My Grandfather." I had to laugh seeing that the author, like me, also wanted to follow the fictional characters a few more years, and see them again. Sam and Miss Perkins speak with such recognizable voices (like old friends) when we fast forward and hear them reflect. Almost inspite of myself, I had to love gabby, fussy, old (50 is old through 6th grade eyes!) Miss Perkins and her uplifting love: her vital, relentless devotion to a disabled boy who was, perhaps, less obviously able to "earn" it than most of us. Also heartening, this personal portrait shows how far inclusion for handicapped children has come in forty years, especially in the public schools. Andrea White has inspired this adult (who has no obvious disability) and will inspire any number of my youthful clients. For, WINDOW BOY is now a much enjoyed addition to our waiting room. Thank you, Ms. White. Mark Leifeste, Child Psychiatrist, Boulder, CO.

I read Window Boy over the weekend and LOVED it. Sad and uplifting. The depiction of Sam, locked in a body with an active mind, so misunderstood broke my heart. Add to that a self-absorbed mother and it was almost too much. But the nanny and the comparison to Churchill's heartbreaking childhood brought hope to the story, as did the evolution of the teacher's feelings for Sam. And I liked that Sam is an extreme version of all of us - wishing at least someone would really know us and not just see us. This book was an ispiration to me - a reminder to persevere, to be kind and to look beneath the surface. It will inspire children - especially those for whom school and life are not a cakewalk. I've ordered five for some youngsters in my life.

'Window Boy' is a fantastic introduction into the life of my Great-Grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill. It completely encapsulates the principals of 'NEVER SURRENDER!' and 'DETERMINATION!' that he lived by. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. 'Window Boy' is a must read for any person of any age, especially a Churchill fan.

As a grandparent of four grandsons I began to read the book with a sceptical eye. Thinking that the topic of an early adolescent boy with cerebral palsy who has an inpoverished single mother would be depressing I brought a cup of tea and a box of chocolate truffles to the sofa table to 'help me get through' the book. Although I did indulge in the truffles I needed nothing to get me through this interesting and fast moving 'read'. Andrea White has a deft understanding both of the mind and emotions of an preadolescent boy and of the power of people who love and believe in someone to empower that person to cope with and overcome obstacles. This book is a little bit of a fantasy-- with a lot of historical Churcillian 'tidbits'delightfully worked into the story line, But the book is also realistic and optimistic enough that I, who as an academic focused on child development, have purchased several copies of this book and sent them to friends who have a child with cerebral palsy in their families. Window Boy is a book written for children and teen age readers but it is also an important book to be read by adults who work with CP children and by those who interact with them. And, of course, the book should be read by all who love such individuals.