SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — A fifth-grade teacher at Mercer Elementary School in Shaker Heights is reaching children beyond the classroom through a children's book about organ donation.
Chante Thomas has been teaching and inspiring young minds for 32 years. Her most recent book, Sean and the Book Cures: The Great Sacrifice… Can You Spare a Kidney?, follows two cousins who love to read and includes a surprising revelation later in the story.
"As a teacher and as an author, I just want kids to see themselves in stories," Thomas said.
The book draws on a real-life journey. Fellow 32-year teacher and friend Wendy Lewis, who is retired, is a two-time kidney transplant recipient. Her first transplant came from her cousin in 1999. Her second came from her husband, Greg, in 2021.
"She said girl, you got to tell that story, I said, you're the only author I know. You need to tell that story," Lewis said.
Thomas said reading and research can help make difficult topics feel more approachable.
"If we can just learn about things through reading and research, it makes everything feel so much better," Thomas said.
Thomas also explained why she chose a children's book as the format for this message.
"I think that our children are advocates for all the things that as adults we sometimes just have already formed our belief about and so this has been a way to teach kids that things aren't scary," Thomas said.
Lewis said she was moved by how Thomas wove their real lives into the story.
"She did just a phenomenal job with that kind of weaving everything together, everything …in the boys, weaving her son and my son and the girls into the book, you know, it was just, I was blown away," Lewis said.
Writing and sharing the book also changed Thomas personally.
"In telling this story and going out and sharing the book, you know, I became an organ donor and I wasn't before," Thomas said.
Both Thomas and Lewis hope the book's message will resonate with young readers.
"Organ donation saves lives, ask questions," Lewis said.
"If you give a child a book, I mean, you just don't know where they're going to go with that, like book can open up so many worlds and doors for kids," Thomas said.
Sean and the Book Cures: The Great Sacrifice… Can You Spare a Kidney? is available on Amazon and on Thomas' website.
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