The teachers and administrators of Daisy Ingraham Elementary School don’t want any child to feel invisible.

So when pre-schooler Jack Livernoche was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease that took him out of school for treatment and recovery, the teachers and principal wondered, “What can we do?”

Livernoche’s pre-K teacher, Heather Gersz, has the class visit with him once a week via Skype. He and his classmates can see each other and talk to each other. They sing songs together.

“He’s still part of their class even if he can’t be physically in their classroom,” said Cathy Dowler, 2nd-grade and head teacher at the school. “‘You may not be here, but we can still think of you, we can care about you.’”

Dowler, other teachers, and Principal Ruth W. Rose thought it was important to spread this message of inclusion throughout the school. Dowler wondered if there was a way to do it through literature.

The solution was the One School, One Book initiative, which the school had been thinking about for some time, Rose said. Every family with children at the school received a copy of The Invisible Boy, a picture book written by Trudy Ludwig and illustrated by Patrice Barton.

“A little boy in first or second grade feels invisible,” Dowler said about the story. “It takes a new boy moving into the class to recognize that the main character is a very talented artist and a very kind friend and someone who is willing to reach out.”

At the beginning of the story, the main character, Brian, is portrayed by the illustrator in black and white while all the other characters are illustrated in color. As the new boy, Justin, recognizes and acknowledges Brian, bits of color seep into the drawing of him until, finally accepted by his peers, he is shown fully in color.

Each week, Daisy Ingraham families are asked to re-read the book with their children and discuss a new set of questions together. The questions ask them to turn to a specific page, on which an event in the story takes place.

“We have a fairly large English language learner population,” Dowler explained, “so we made sure that the transcript went home in both Spanish and Portuguese,” as did the questions, in another effort to include everyone.

Teachers also read the book in their classrooms and are able to tailor the questions to the grades they teach, from pre-K to 4th.

“One of the questions we asked is ‘Have you ever excluded anyone?’” Dowler said. Some of the 4th-grade students have had the courage to acknowledge that they have.”

This enables them to think about how their actions may have hurt another child and to consider doing things differently in the future, she said.

Keeping Jack Visible

Livernoche’s brother and sister, Madison (kindergarten) and Michael (second grade) also Daisy Ingraham students, received a copy of the book to take home with them at the school’s annual Pajama Day Sing-along before the winter break. The family was struck by how much Brian, the book’s protagonist, resembles their little boy.

Livernoche “has the sweet little glasses and he has a little poof of hair in the middle,” said his mother, Cory Livernoche. “And he has cute little features like the boy in the book.”

Jack Livernoche, who has Down syndrome, is a gregarious little boy who loves to play with other children, so the isolation is difficult.

“He’s very expressive, very happy,” Cory Livernoche said, noting he would walk down the hallway at school “blowing kisses at everybody.”

About a month into the academic year of his first year of school, he was already well known to his schoolmates. It was in October that he was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic (B-cell ALL) leukemia.

Jack Livernoche’s treatment will take three years. In February or March, he’ll begin a phase of chemotherapy called intensification.

“He’ll most likely have fevers and be in the hospital a lot,” Cory Livernoche said, noting that this is the part of the treatment that often causes children to lose their hair.

His suppressed immune system means play dates at home are extremely limited, even for his siblings.

“Since October he’s had very limited public outings and interactions with other kids,” his mom said. “If my kids have a friend over, it has to be someone I personally know. They have to wear clean clothes and can’t wear shoes in the house.”

His siblings take showers and change their clothes as soon as they get home from school. Livernoche rarely goes out—the possibility of getting sick is too risky, as she’s Jack’s primary caretaker.

Jack Livernoche’s spirits are lifted by his classmates’ efforts to reach out, his mom said. In addition to Skyping, they’ve sent posters and other artwork, such as art for the holidays that the school sent to Jack at the hospital. The school also sends teachers to tutor him at home.

Spreading the Message

“For any school, [One School, One Book is] a really good initiative,” Cory Livernoche said. “It opens up the door for a conversation at home about things. It’s a conversation starter for parents and children who might not communicate that well.

“I love it and I think that especially because [Jack] has Down syndrome, inclusion is a major thing that we’re always pushing for in all aspects of his life,” she continued.

Copies of the book have been placed at local coffee shops, at the public library, and at Town Hall in an effort to encourage the wider community to participate. Members of the public are asked to read the book and then sign a page that they find especially meaningful.

“We’re hoping that as many people out in the community are also touched by this story,” Dowler said. “We hope people absorb the message and sign a page and spread the kindness. Because the message of the book is that it’s never too late to reach out in kindness.”

The project will culminate in early February with a day of “activities around the theme of kindness,” Dowler said. Rose described it as “an indoor field day,” with students moving through stations offering different activities focused on inclusion.

“The librarian and Spanish teacher will read a story about friendship and kindness in both English and Spanish,” said Dowler. There will be team-building and cooperative play activities as well as yoga, and the music teacher will teach each grade a different song about friendship.

At an assembly at the end of the day, each grade will sing the song they learned.

The school is sending a letter to families with children at all district schools, asking for donations of new books, toys, games, and plush toys for donation to Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital for its toy closet, from which hospitalized children, as well as their siblings, may choose a gift to take home with them.