Sandra Dutton’s new book, “A Wheelchair That Flies,” invites us into the life of 9-year-old Daniel who teaches readers, and his Fairy Godmother Lily, that needing a wheelchair for legs doesn’t mean you are not, or cannot, be happy. Dutton’s watercolor illustrations are charming, inviting, magical ... and as ever, sure to make readers smile. Written in rhythmic verse, complemented by charming watercolor illustrations, Dutton takes us on a journey we will take many times.    

The story opens with Fairy Godmother Lily. She looks out at a star-lit sky listening for a wish uttered by her next charge/child to help. A lavender cloud appears above the child’s location and bursts. And she’s off – cape over her shoulders that takes on a wing-like appearance, magic wand in a pocket, “and leaps out headfirst into the night.” As soon as she arrives at Daniel’s house, in his room, and sees he is in a wheelchair, Lily automatically believes she knows what he wants. She doesn’t need to ask – she knows he wants to walk. That is until, after introductions of course, and after Daniel asks, “What are you, some kind of Barbie doll?” Imagine the mild indignation! “I’m your fairy godmother!” Insert eye roll here.

Lily tries to cast a spell to make Daniel “well.” She tries a few times. Daniel suggests she might want to “work with somone else," adding “I’m happy anyway.”

The walls of Daniel’s room are covered with baseball players. He watches games all of the time. What his Godmother has yet to learn is this: His late father was a ball player for the Louisville Bats. And, maybe, just maybe there is something she can do for Daniel ... Lily may have to put on a baseball thinking cap.

A conversation between Lily and her fairy godmother teacher Giselle in the Magic Shop where Giselle tells her student fairy godmother that spells don’t always work is a treasure.

Dutton weaves her own magic with this one. What does Daniel tell Lily he wants? How does she give/get it for him? You’ll just have to read the book and find out.

A lot of research went into this book begun in 2020 – and not only of the reading variety. Dutton met with families and the children. She recalled one home in Louisville had a large board in the livingroom for their 9-year-old son who was not yet using a wheelchair.

“One woman was depressed because she wanted to have Thanksgiving in a certain place because it would allow a person to roll his chair in. And her father got all upset, pushed out of shape because she wanted to do that,” shared Dutton.

She visited drugstores, photographing wheelchairs (for drawing purposes) and spent a few hours learning how to drive one – ending with a collision into a display of surgical masks. At one store a clerk whose nephew had a muscle-wasting disease told Sandra eventually walking became impossible and that it was “... like trying to lift a 5-pound bag of flour on each foot.”

A major inspiration for this book came in a 2003 New York Times magazine article about Harriet McBryde Johnson. She lived an accomplished and happy life despite the muscular dystrophy. She was an author, lawyer and disability rights activist. Johnson, representing the national disability rights group Not Dead Yet, famously took on the Australian philosopher and bioethicist Peter Singer who believed parents should be entitled to euthanize their disabled infant or young child. Johnson took him on in a 2003 debate that she wrote about for New York Times magazine.

“I was so impressed with her, and embarrassed and ashamed that I knew so little about that kind of a disease,” Dutton said.

And she’s not alone – how many of us do? “A Wheelchair That Flies” was completed a few years ago. It is Sandra Dutton at her absolute best. I’ve read it twice and it’s so hard not to reveal the magical adventure Daniel and Fairy Godmother Lily share. You know what you have to do: Plan on being at Sherman’s Books on Commercial Street Thursday, June 24 between 1 and 3 p.m. Meet Dutton at her book signing.

The following book review, by Emily Wolinsky, President of NMD (neuromuscular disabilities) United, says it all: “'A Wheelchair That Flies' celebrates disability autonomy and self-direction in ways never captured by traditional fairy godmother stories. Readers will fall in love with Daniel for his confidence, passion, and absolute comfort in his skin. They will empathize with the adorable and fallible Lily, Daniel's fairy godmother. And they will be reminded that wishes, like people, hold unique and precious to the individual.”