This book was written for our son, Aiden, in the spring of his Kindergarten year.  Aiden was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, and although he has the best surgeon, his smile is still not the same as other children’s.  Aiden never told his teacher, Ms Lewis, or his family that children and even some grown ups were questioning him about his lip.  It wasn’t until his little brother, Duncan, asked him innocently, “Aiden, what’s wrong with your lip?” that Aiden fell apart and said that he was so tired of people asking him about his lip.  He tells people that he was born with a cleft but that word does not answer their questions it just makes them more curious.

As parents we felt terrible that we were not aware of his situation.  Every day when the kids come home from school they each tell us about their day and this issue never came up. We have spent a lot of time at the school and had great communication with the teacher and still, all of us were astounded by the news; apparently most of the questioning occurred under the play set at recess.

After reading this book to Aiden’s class the only question asked was, is this a true story?  His teacher told me later that all the children wanted to play with him from then on.  Since I read this story he seems to be much more outgoing and confident around his classmates.  From now on he or I will read the story at the beginning of the school year to help answer the questions of his classmates who are curious about differences.

We feel this book is a great tool for parents, teachers and friends of children with differences or a special smile.  It helps explain in young listeners and young reader’s words what a cleft lip and palate are.  My hope is that this book is used before the cleft affected child is asked that natural question, “What’s wrong with your lip?”  Educate the curious.  Give classmates the information and explanation so they can also answer that question.  We hope this book helps you as much as it has helped our son.