![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/phoenix\/files\/2022\/10\/Read-my-book.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSince Maison has worked so hard finding his own voice, we could think of no better way to share his story than through a very touching interview with he and his mom. You can find links to follow his story, purchase the book and support the Playhouse at the end of the interview.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Q: Have you always wanted to be an author?<\/p>\n
Maison: Yes, I love books!<\/p>\n
Mom: No, this book wasn\u2019t intended to sell.\u00a0 It all started when one night Maison asked me if girls like boys with Down syndrome.\u00a0 It broke\u00a0 my heart, but started the conversations between him, his grandma, and me.\u00a0 For months we talked about what it means to have a girlfriend\u00a0 and what girls like in boys.\u00a0 Grandma noted the conversations to help Maison navigate through these feelings.\u00a0 They surprised me and\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 turned it into a sweet and simple book to give me for my birthday.\u00a0 I posted it online and everyone wanted a copy.\u00a0 We kind of laughed it off until one mom called crying because it touched her heart so much.\u00a0 We then looked into self-publishing it, and here we are.<\/p>\n
Q:\u00a0 Was it hard to write a book?<\/p>\n
Maison:\u00a0 Yes, it was hard spelling the words.<\/p>\n
Mom:\u00a0 Once they realized it was turning into a book he might sell, they tried redoing aspects of it, but it just didn’t seem right.\u00a0 They went back to the original simple handwritten version they made for me, and that organic simplicity is actually what everyone likes about it.<\/p>\n
Q: How has participating at GiGi’s helped you grow your skills to be able to do this?<\/p>\n
Maison: It helps me to read better.<\/p>\n
Mom: He loves being involved in Gigi’s and we feel so blessed to be part of this community.<\/p>\n
Q: Do you have advice for other people who want to write a book?<\/p>\n
Mom:\u00a0 Find a need and fill it.\u00a0 When we researched to see if anyone else had something out there for him to read and help him sort through these feelings we didn’t find anything, so that is why we continued the dialogue with him.\u00a0 Now everyone has Maison’s book to help so they don’t feel alone with these feelings.<\/p>\n
Q: Can you tell me about the interviews you did to get the great answers in the book?<\/p>\n
Maison:\u00a0 I asked girls, grandma and mom.<\/p>\n
Mom:\u00a0 It was mostly asking me, grandma, and a friend what we like in a boy and how we like to be treated.\u00a0 It’s so important in todays hectic world to get back to the basics and teach kids to respect each other.<\/p>\n
Q: \u00a0When you are ready for a girlfriend, what do you hope she’ll be like?<\/p>\n
Maison: Kind, cares for stuff, likes to eat, pretty<\/p>\n
Mom: He is a typical teen boy with movie stars and princesses on his wall, but I’m very proud that ‘being kind’ and ‘cares for stuff’ was first on the list.<\/p>\n
Q: How long have you been playing basketball?<\/p>\n
Maison:\u00a0 I was a little boy<\/p>\n
Mom:\u00a0 He has had a basketball in his hand everywhere he went since he was 2.\u00a0 But playing on a league since he was 8.\u00a0 Basketball is his passion, we will always support it the best we can.\u00a0 He actually trains with a former NBA player to keep his skills up<\/p>\n
Q: What’s your favorite things about playing basketball?<\/p>\n
Maison:\u00a0 Having a team, making baskets<\/p>\n
Mom:\u00a0 Being on a “typical” league has really pushed him outside his comfort zone and also has helped him get in shape.\u00a0 This year is the first year where the kids his age are passing him in skill level and too aggressive for him.\u00a0 But his shot….it’s just fantastic!<\/p>\n
Q: Besides writing books, what else do you like to do with your grandma?<\/p>\n
Maison:\u00a0 Read, Eat Eat Eat, play, go on vacations<\/p>\n
Mom: They have their dates of mini golf, plays, going out to eat, talking, reading, and she also tutors him in math.<\/p>\n
Q:\u00a0 Do you think you will write more books in the future?<\/p>\n
Maison:\u00a0 Yes, about girls<\/p>\n
Mom:\u00a0 We have been approached by others wanting the “I Want a Boyfriend” version….it might be in the works.<\/p>\n
Q:\u00a0 What else do you want people to know about you?<\/p>\n
Maison:\u00a0 I’m a kind boy, I want a girlfriend!<\/p>\n
Mom:\u00a0\u00a0Maison is such an amazing and caring kid, I’m so blessed to have been chosen to be his mom.\u00a0 He has some exciting projects in the works with his younger siblings that you will want to be part of, please check out his FB page and follow him to see what\u2019s next.\u00a0 \u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100086386512289<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n You can follow this link to purchase your own copy<\/a> and this one to support Playhouse programs<\/a> like literacy tutoring!<\/p>\n Blog by Laura Kimble<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once upon a time, a little boy was born. A diagnosis given. Future abilities assumed. Some people wondered if he would ever be able to speak, let alone read or write.\u00a0 But write he does, and Maison does it so well that he is now a published author! Individuals with Down syndrome are more than…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7833,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7833"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/phoenix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}