Journalistic investigations on wrongful murder convictions may not sound like the plot of a children’s book, but for Oak Parker and founder of the Innocence Project David Protess, it became one.
Protess’ new children’s book “Bedtime Stories Only a Grandparent Can Tell,” is a collection of 12 stories he originally wrote during the pandemic for his grandson Harry and later stories for his granddaughter Lorelei who live all the way in New York. During the lockdown, his son and daughter-in-law ran out of reading material and turned to the legendary storyteller for stories of their own.
“The really unexpected benefit of all of that was knowing that my son was reading my stories to my grandson, therefore bridging three generations in 800 miles, allowing me to connect with them at their bedtimes,” said Protess.
The intergenerational thread to his grandson was reminiscent of his own upbringing in Brooklyn with his parents and grandparents all living together in a two-flat.
“My grandfather was my male role model. He was my hero, and he and my grandmother, they were like a second set of parents to me,” said Protess. “That was an aspect of my childhood that sustained me throughout my life emotionally.”
His storytelling career began in his childhood bedroom where his parents would send him when he was “defiant.” It was with his smuggled pen and paper that he would wait out his punishment, and he learned writing could be an outlet for difficult emotions.
His book explores many difficult emotions and themes through six “real stories” and six fictional that still bring in many real characters. Some of the stories are retellings of his own life experiences, others feature his grandson Harry as the protagonist learning lessons, and some share his investigative work on wrongful convictions.
Protess said he thought it was going to be “impossible” to tell those stories in a way that would appeal to a younger audience, but actually found the opposite was true.
“I found out that really the audience is the same in the sense that they want a compelling tale with strong characters, heroes and villains,” said Protess.
He had written 25 stories all together, and years later was encouraged by a close friend to publish them as a book. When he brought the idea to his grandson, Harry was excited to see stories that shaped a big part of his childhood brought to the next chapter, said Protess. He eventually narrowed down the stories to the 12 that are now published and which he felt had a unifying theme.
“One of the issues that drove me to actually do a book, is to try to inspire young people into believing rightly that they can make a difference in their family, in their neighborhood, and in their world, on American society, and all the stories have that in common,” said Protess.
Although the pandemic has now faded into memories for most, the residual societal impacts linger, and Protess said the themes are still relatable today.
“It’s all about connectedness, and in this world of ours that’s so disconnected,” said Protess. “One of the goals here was to provide a unifying theme where families can reconnect through journalistic storytelling. I wasn’t sure if that was going to work or not. The fact that it did was probably the most gratifying thing to me. It brought me closer to my family.”
Protess said the next step is to have five of the chapters translated into Spanish. Armando Serrano, a man Protess helped free from a wrongful conviction with his investigative work, is lined up to be a part of the translation process.
The book can be found on the publisher’s, FriesenPress, website, Amazon and other online bookstore platforms.