My Inspiration
The stories were inspired by a woman I met online who lives in Berlin, Germany. At the time she taught a class of fourteen first graders who were all deaf to one degree or another. In addition, the Lady’s youngest daughter was also deaf.
Thus was born “The Deaf Prince.” It tells the story of a royal child who goes deaf and of his friend who learns to ‘talk’ to the young Prince.
My friend told me about telling her daughter ‘The Deaf Prince’ and of her daughter’s revelation – “I didn’t think important people could be deaf!”
In trying to get “The Deaf Prince” published, I ran into an economic roadblock. Every publisher I submitted the books to rejected the stories mainly because of the small size of the target audience (three-six year-old deaf children). I realize there is a smaller audience for my books than for a normal fairy tale, but theese children need the stories as much as the children who can hear. There is also another audience that the publishers overlooked – libraries. There are over 150,000 public and elementary school libraries in the United States, most of whom have one or more deaf children in their school, city, or county.
I have since added two more stories to the collection. These two stories are about Fabiola and her friend. Fabiola is totally deaf while her friend can only hear very loud noises. They team up with a Scottish brownie to free Fabiola’s mother and sister from an evil witch.
I created this web page to solicit help in proving to a publisher that they should accept the challenge of printing these important books. I need friends and relatives of deaf children to offer me comments that I can use in getting a publisher to accept the series for publication. I also need librarians at all levels to join the individuals in leaving supporting comments. If you know of a Deaf Society or library who might be interested in helping me, please contact them.
I am sure with your help I will find a publisher quickly.
Thanks,
Tom
