"The Boy and The Red Balloon"
As a dentist, Dr. Kaveh N. Adel tends to look at problems in a very clinical style. He and his wife, Dr. Semira Rezayazdi, who is also a dentist, have two sons and enjoy living in Naperville. However, Dr. Adel has learned through his experiences with his children that some of life's problems need a different approach. When his five-year-old son Kian experienced difficulties with speech, he found that he needed to take a new perspective. "This was not a problem that could be approached surgically. I needed to step back and approach this with love."
He realized this loving approach through writing a book for his son. The idea for the book came to him after his son had difficulty expressing his feeling after losing a balloon. "The book is about the loss of a balloon but I decided to write the story from the perspective of the balloon. It was helpful to be able to teach children about emotions through the use of an inanimate object," says Dr. Adel. He wrote the rough draft of the story after thinking about it during a long drive home one night. He sketched some simple illustrations with plans to make more elaborate ones later.
"I showed my work to a therapist who told me to keep the drawings simple because it would be more effective in describing the emotions," explains Dr. Adel. He read the book to his son's class and was pleased to see how they responded to the story. "I could see on their faces as they went through the emotions in the story," he says.
The book entitled "The Boy and The Red Balloon" was published in March and is available on Amazon.com. Dr. Adel is donating 10% of the profits from the project to Make-a-Wish Foundation and Autism Speaks.
Dr. Adel says that his son's struggles have been inspiring. "He continues to overcome hurdles with the help of teachers and therapists. The story in this book is about never giving up and believing, with unconditional love, that anyone can conquer any hurdle." -Judy Buchenot
