01 The Birth of "A Boy like You and Me"

Quite a while ago, I was asked to visit a center for kids with special needs and entertain them for an hour. The age group ranged from 6 to 15 and their special needs differed widely. Having never worked with special needs children before, I was not quite sure what kind of activity might be suitable for them. However, as everyone loves stories and being a passionate reader and narrator, I decided to tell them a story and let things evolve naturally.

My selection criteria were that I wanted the children to feel good about themselves, to go on an adventure with me and to feel inspired after having heard the story. The problem was that none of the fairy tales or well-known children’s stories I could think of seemed suitable for our encounter. Either the story was too long or too short, the vocabulary too sophisticated or too limited, the plot too scary or too boring or the main character and the setting too restricted by cultural, national or religious norms. So in the end I just sat down and made up the story of A Boy like You and Me.

The day I went to the center I had come down with a fever, my voice sounded horrible and I was really nervous. When the children were brought in, I could tell they were not really comfortable with encountering a stranger in their familiar surroundings. Some seemed restless, others shy but a few seemed curious of what might happen next. Being a total failure in visual arts, I had prepared very simple posters of my boy, the animals he envisioned and the changes he underwent. However, to my total surprise the children really focused on the story, laughed, showed shock and surprise, and openly shared their experiences with me, that included everything from visits to the zoo, flying in a plane to not wanting to wash their neck and ears. All the kids – even the ones who thought the story was a bit scary – were totally happy with the ending. After having finished my reading I encouraged them to draw anything that came to their mind and each single one of my young audience turned out to be a true artist with a strong imagination and love for colours. Today, I regret not having taken photos of their works of art.

A year later I presented the same story to children at a nursery school in Abu Dhabi and the feedback was just as positive. The nursery school teacher was really surprised of how quiet the kids were while listening to the story of my boy. It was then that the idea of sharing my boy with a larger audience was born, and I was lucky to find an artist to paint the images that had long before taken shape in my imagination.

Many children have asked me why my boy doesn’t have a name and I was never really able to give them a satisfactory answer. I guess I just didn’t want to put a label on him. Maybe it is up to my little readers to find a name they think fits him best. At the moment I wonder how I will get the word out to as many children as possible to get to know my boy and I think of giving them a voice and let them name him after all.

Not one of my young audience has ever asked me why I had not written about a girl, but some of the adults have. Again, I cannot answer this question. The story of “A Boy like You and Me” popped up and I developed it further and further until I thought it was ready to share with kids from all over the world. Maybe one day there will be a story about “A Girl like You and Me”, but at the moment I am working on something totally different.

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