ABOUT THE BOY

This book was inspired by a young, blind boy named Brick. Brick is eight years old. He is epileptic, wheelchair-bound and blind.

There are many types of blindness. Brick's blindness is called cortical visual impairment, or "brain bindness". CVI is the only growing and partially recoverable form of blindness. Unlike traditional blindness, Brick's eyes work, but his brain does not understand what his eyes see. Doctors think he has pockets of vision, which is kind of like looking through Swiss cheese. To fill in visual gaps, Brick uses his other senses, various CVI strategies, a lot of focus and his imagination.

Brick has a powerful imagination. He uses it to see, invent games and connect with people, just like in this book. If you'd like to learn more about cortical visual impairment and strategies to see, please visit www.perkins.org or www.cvinow.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A native of Texas, Lauren Fornes is Brick’s mother and an advocate for universal design and disability inclusion. She lives outside Boston and spends time on Nantucket with her husband, four children, and a dog named Tuck. Lauren serves as a trustee of the Perkins School for the Blind.

Lauren has an unrelenting passion for beauty. She believes it is healing and always available, if we pause to discover or create it. While Lauren creates beauty through interior decoration and garden design, Brick has taught her that beauty exists in a dimension beyond vision. When it comes to imagination, the blind see best. This book celebrates creativity, friendship, summer, and our unexpected gifts. After all, the most beautiful things in life are unseen. Connect with Lauren @MagicEyesBook or visit www.MagicEyesBook.com. 

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

Meredith Hanson has called Nantucket home for the past 11 years. The Nantucket business community is like one big team; they all root for each other's success. This is one of many things that makes Nantucket so unique.

Meredith and her dog, Willis, split their time between Boston's South Shore and Nantucket, so they truly have the best of both worlds. Nantucket encourages its residents and visitors to experience the island in its entirety. No two parts of the island are the same - the vegetation, the lighting, and the terrain are all different. She feels like she's part-artist, part-explorer every time she heads out to work on a new project!

Learn more about her work and collaboration with companies like Vineyard Vines, Saks, Serena & Lily via @merhanson or through her websities www.MeredithHansonArt.com.