I'm Barbara Salzman from Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California and now often known as The Jester's Mom.

That all began in December 1990, five minutes after Good Morning America introduced our late son David’s children's book, The Jester Has Lost His Jingle, to the country. Our phone didn't stop ringing. Within two hours we sold the 20,000 books we had on hand. Another 10,000 had already been donated to all children with cancer nationwide. We went back on press immediately. The book reached the New York Times bestseller list and now we are celebrating its 30th anniversary with another 30,000 copies. That will bring to nearly half a million the number of jester books in print, including bilingual editions in Spanish and Japanese. Health professionals, educators, students, and families fell in love with the jester and his stick pal, Farley. Teachers sent me jester lesson ideas and activities they were creating for their students. An eight-year-old cancer patient wrote that her favorite part of the book is when the Jester does his funny tricks. She took the Jester and Farley doll with her when she went for hospital treatments. She said, "I like to hold the doll when I get my spinal taps because it helps me forget the pain." It became clear that we needed to extend the book's reach to help even more children. So, we founded the Jester and Farley Fund charity in 2000.

But how did David's remarkable Jester actually come to be? The book took shape in David's mind in a 1988 summer school program between David's junior and senior years at Yale. One day he walked into class smiling and told a silly joke, but nobody laughed or said hello. He took out his notebook and began to doodle. He sketched a sad-looking face that reflected how he felt, randomly put triangles on its head, took another look and wrote, "The jester has lost his jingle." He was thinking, of course, of himself as the jester. After class, David couldn't get that sad little jester out of his mind. "I bet there's a good children's story I could write about a jester who loses his jingle," he thought. And then and there, The Jester Has Lost His Jingle, was born. That night, he put together a complete storyboard. When he returned to Yale in the fall, the book became his senior project. A month later, David was diagnosed with a form of cancer called Hodgkin's disease, but chemo and radiation never stopped him. He worked on his story constantly, did cartoons for competing student newspapers, got his best grades ever, was a tour guide and helped students with their projects, and he was always there for someone whose spirits needed lifting. He wrote in his journal, "The best we can do is live life, enjoy it, and know it is meant to be enjoyed. Know how important and special every time, moment, person is." Our family promised David, that no matter what, we would see that his book was published as he envisioned and be given free to all children in the U.S., annually diagnosed with cancer. Today that number is nearly 16,000.

When David was a freshman at Yale, he met where the Wild Things Are author artist, Maurice Sendak, at a student event. Mr. Sendak was so impressed by David that he invited him to visit his studio in his home in Litchfield, Connecticut. After spending a life-changing day with the author, David called me at the LA Times where I was an editor to tell me he now knew what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted to be a children's author artist, just like Maurice Sendak. Five years after David's death, our family was ready to take the book on press. We took out a mortgage and crossed our fingers. It was nearly ten years since David had met Mr. Sendak. Yet, despite his reputation as a curmudgeon, he responded to my request to say a few words about the story. Mr. Sendak said he'd be honored to endorse the Jester and would do anything he could to help it along. The most important children's book author of the 20th century actually told me to add his name to the cover of the Jester, something he had never done before or since. Maurice Sendak's endorsement, David's Jester soars with life, made the literary world take notice. But before one book went on a bookstore shelf, 10,000 were donated to all the young cancer patients across the country. I left the LA Times.

My journey now was one of visiting hospitals, schools, and other centers where children needed to have David's Jester lift their spirits. Hospitalized children and students of every age, background, ethnicity, religion, and income fell in love with David and his Jester and Farley. His story spoke to everyone. In 1999, teachers at a Rhode Island Elementary School surprised us with a check for $139.80. Their students wanted to give copies of the Jester to patients at their local Children's Hospital. They created a week-long read-a-thon to earn a penny a page for every page they read. They read 13,980 pages. I realized that a Jester and Farley Fund read-a-thon could be a wonderful way to boost literacy and compassion among struggling readers. “The Jester Has Lost His Jingle is my favorite book because it makes me laugh and smile," second -grader Melody recently wrote, “David Saltzman is my favorite author because he brings people joy.” Melody is one of over 194,000 students joining Jester read-a-thon’s to generate the donation of Jester Books and Dolls to local hospitals. Since our first literacy program in 2001, over 56 million pages have been read by students to bring joy to hospitalized kids in their neighborhood. Altogether, a quarter million Jester books and dolls have been donated to more than 400 hospitals and in support of literacy. The book is requested now more than ever. I'm not surprised that David's legacy continues to live on. Our family realize the Jester’s value when David first showed us his rough draft in the summer of 1988, before any of us knew of his illness. We never forget what one hospitalized child told us - “I'm never alone when the Jester and Farley are with me.”