Creating meaningful book-bonding experiences across generations
BY KAREN L. RANCOURT, PH.D.
“Gramma Karen, can you read to me?”
Those were drop-everything-I-was-doing words when my two, now-adult grandsons were young. Snuggling together on a couch or outdoors on a chaise lounge, we traveled downstream with Tom and Huckleberry and climbed rope ladders to the Swiss Family Robinson’s treehouse. Those moments are forever memories. Oh, the places we went!
With those precious one-on-one reading times in mind, I want to introduce award-winning author Anita Mitchell, who has created a wonderful book that offers an intergenerational bonding experience through reading and sharing.
Anita’s literary journey began in 2020 at the Fort Lauderdale International Swimming Hall of Fame, where she had been a member of a swim team for many years. One day, the team’s coach, Marty Hendrick, announced that they would be hosting a Paralympic hopeful named Abbas Karimi. Abbas needed a place to continue training for the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo after his training facility in Oregon had closed.
The Olympics are the premier global multi-sport event for elite able-bodied athletes, while the Paralympics are the premier international competition for elite athletes with disabilities, including amputations, blindness, deafness, and cerebral palsy. Abbas’s impairment is that he was born without arms. Yet despite that challenge, he developed into an extraordinary swimmer.
Abbas proudly showing one of the two historic silver medals he won in swimming at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, representing Team USA.
Born in Afghanistan, Abbas’s long and difficult journey took him through Turkey, where he lived for four years, before he eventually settled in the USA, where his swimming career took root. Anita recalls being amazed the first time she saw him in the water.
“He has no arms, and yet he was the fastest swimmer in the pool!” she said. Seeing is believing.
Meanwhile, a literary agent had heard about Abbas and believed his remarkable story deserved to be told. She approached Coach Hendrick in Fort Lauderdale and asked whether he knew a writer who could bring Abbas’s journey to life.
Coach Hendrick suggested that the literary agent speak with Anita, noting her 26 years of experience covering television news. He also believed that, because of her own swimming background, she would be uniquely qualified to tell Abbas’s story with a depth of understanding and critical insight that might not be as readily available to a non-swimmer. After the meeting, they agreed that Anita would write Abbas’s story.
Following extensive research and numerous interviews with Abbas, Anita authored God Took My Arms but He Gave Me THIS GIFT.
Abbas’s Story Tailored for Young Readers
The idea of a children’s version of this book came from readers who said it would make a great story for children, as it showcases important values and life lessons, including dedication, determination, commitment, and overcoming challenges.
With younger readers in mind and appreciating that they love the cadence and playfulness of rhyming words, Anita decided to tell Abbas’s story in rhyming poetry. The Introduction is an example:
In this book, Anita also includes photographs, discussion questions, vocabulary words, and videos. The result is THE SWIMMER WITH NO ARMS.
This book is available only in Kindle format, so three videos can be viewed to enhance the story: Abbas describes his journey to the 2024 Paris Paralympics, Abbas receiving his medals, and a trailer for the upcoming documentary about Abbas’s story, produced by the University of Miami.
This book provides many intergenerational book-bonding opportunities. Literate young readers can read the text on their own and then join family members to share comments around the discussion questions, while pre-literate readers can enjoy a family member reading it to them.
Everyone can participate in answering the open-ended discussion questions. For example,
- Name 10 ways you use your arms. How would you do those things if you didn’t
have arms? What would be the hardest?
- Who are the helpers in this story? Why did they want to help Abbas? Who helped
the most and how?
There are no right or wrong answers: readers, from the youngest to the oldest, can comfortably share their responses based on their own limited or expanded experiences. They can learn from each other and about each other.
Family members can watch the videos together, either in person or digitally, and enjoy shared discussions.
Abbas’s story does not have to be a one-off intergenerational book-bonding experience. An ongoing family activity could be set in motion, one with many cognitive and social benefits.
Intergenerational book-bonding experiences have the potential to: improve reading and comprehension skills; build empathy and respect; improve language and vocabulary; increase confidence and self-esteem; create lasting memories — and most important, strengthen family relationships.
Anita Mitchell and Abbas Karimi
Note: There are many interactive books available for young readers, including these interactive resources that combine education, true stories, and engagement:
