Barbara Saltzman, author David Saltzman’s mother and executive director of the Jester & Pharley Phund reads The Jester Has Lost His Jingle – with Child Life Specialist Araceli Angulo reading Natalia Aurrecoechea’s translation – to Miller Children’s patients and their families.
Pediatric patients from Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach and their families gathered to enjoy a reading of The Jester Has Lost His Jingle – a story about a court jester who loses his ability to laugh only to rediscover it through a hospitalized child. The book has been a favorite of Miller Children’s pediatric patients since its debut in 1995. Thursday’s reading marked the first public introduction of the book in Spanish, El Bufón ha perdido su gracia.
The book was read by Barbara Saltzman, author David Saltzman’s mother and executive director of the Jester & Pharley Phund, with Natalia Aurrecoechea’s Spanish translation read by Araceli Anguli, Child Life Specialist at Miller Children’s. Using an animated voice and props Barbara brightened the day of the patients in attendance by providing them with a distraction.
“I loved having such a wonderful Spanish reader to do the story right along with me,” says Barbara. “It was so exciting to read this book in Spanish for the first time and in front of the most critical audience there is.”
After the reading, each patient received their first copy of The Jester Has Lost His Jingle/ El Bufón ha perdido su gracia from Divya Joshi, M.D., chief medical officer, Miller Children’s. Copies were donated to Miller Children’s for all its pediatric patients to use (for children who were feeling too sick to make it to the reading) by LifeCare Solutions of Carson.
Pediatric patients laugh during reading of The Jester Has Lost His Jingle.
“Hospitalization for adults can be difficult, and it can be much more devastating for children who may not understand why they need prolonged medical care,” says Divya Joshi, M.D., chief medical officer, Miller Children’s. “The Jester Has Lost His Jingle/ El Bufón ha perdido su gracia provides the reassurance to pediatric patients that they can be in control of their happiness, something that many hospitalized children and adults don’t realize they have. I believe that this book is favored by so many patients because it’s not only relatable but also gives them hope.”
David Saltzman wrote and illustrated The Jester Has Lost His Jingle as his senior project at Yale, when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. He died shortly after graduation in 1990. His family mortgaged their home to publish the book, and it was first debuted in English at Miller Children’s 17 years ago. The book reached the best seller lists of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly.
Divya Joshi, M.D., chief medical officer at Miller Children’s, gives a copy of The Jester Has Lost His Jingle to an eager patient.
“We introduced the book for the first time at the Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center at Miller Children’s through Dr. Jerry Finklestein,” says Barbara. “Dr. Finklestein and Miller Children’s were instrumental in helping us launch the book and get it into the hands of every child in the country who was diagnosed with cancer.”
In 2000, with her husband Joe, Barbara founded the nonprofit Jester & Pharley Phund. Based in Palos Verdes, Calif., the Jester & Pharley Phund is dedicated to inspiring hope, laughter and self-empowerment within children coping with cancer and other special challenges by providing copies of the inspirational book and doll to children around the country.