A Fairy Tale for Children’s Hard Realities

For seven years, Barbara and Joe Saltzman have held true to their son David’s dying wish: Publish his book, and every chance they get, put it in the hands of the children who need it most.

Five years after David’s death from Hodgkin’s disease, “The Jester Has Lost His Jingle” made it to print. And David’s parents have never stopped sharing its uplifting message.

More than 25,000 copies have been donated to young cancer victims and special needs children.

The couple average two appearances a week for readings and discussions in schools,children’s cancer wards, bookstores and libraries while running the business out of their garage.

Barbara Saltzman will be at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Ventura at 11:30 a.m. Friday and again at 6 p.m. Sunday.

“I love sharing this with the kids, and reading it with them, and telling them about David and how he did it,” said Saltzman, 57, who left her job as an entertainment editor with The Times in 1996 for a full-time stint with the family run Jester Co. “I’m hoping to inspire them to stick with their dreams, and not let the breaks in life drive them down.”

David Saltzman finished writing and illustrating the book after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a progressive illness that attacks the lymph nodes, during his senior year at Yale University.

He died in 1990, just before turning 23 and just after graduating magna cum laude as an English and art major.

Publisher after publisher told the Saltzmans their son’s 64-page book was too long, that rhymes wouldn’t sell, that publishing on top-quality paper with top-quality production techniques would be too costly.

Undeterred, the couple took a loan out on their Palos Verdes home and published it themselves.

The book tells of a king who declares that his once-happy, bubbly jester is no longer funny. Banished from the castle, the jester and his sidekick set off to find laughter again. They find little more than low spirits, sadness and downright meanness.

Until he makes a sick little girl laugh, and the laughter spreads, and the jester concludes that laughter is always hiding somewhere inside.

Since making it to print in October 1995, the book has sold more than 200,000 copies and is now in its fifth printing. It has reached the bestseller lists of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

The couple have even begun producing jester dolls and Pharley dolls, Pharley being the jester’s little helper, a talking piece of wood. A thousand books and dolls have been donated to the Los Angeles Police Department, and on Monday, the couple will donate more to the Los Angeles city attorney’s office for children scarred by domestic violence.

Saltzman remembers watching her son encounter young children going through cancer treatments. He would try to cheer them up, she said. He would tell the story of the jester. He would draw a picture of the character with the pencil and paper he kept in his back pocket. He would give them a hug. He would make sure they smiled.

That memory, Saltzman said, is what inspires her to continue taking the book and its message to young children.

“We always saw the impact this had on the youngsters,” she said. “We also observed how isolated it can feel to children when they are confronted with going through the process of getting treatment for cancer.”

But the book has a message for all children, Saltzman said, not just those who are sick, handicapped or troubled.

“It teaches children that each individual has an important role to play in the lives of other people,” Saltzman said. “That was really central to the way David lived his life.”

The Barnes & Noble bookstore is at 4360 E. Main St.

Times staff writer Dennis McLellan contributed to this story.