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Summary
Summary
Imagine what it would be like not to be able to communicate with those we love. For many individuals living with nonverbal autism and their families, this is their everyday reality. The Golden Hat is an intimate response to this reality created by Kate Winslet, Margret Ericsdottir, and her son Keli, who has nonverbal autism.
Thank you for taking this journey with us. We hope this book brings a new awareness of the opportunity we have to help those with autism learn to communicate and realize their ambitions. People with autism have the potential to achieve great things, but only when given the appropriate support and education. This is why the Golden Hat Foundation was formed. All author proceeds from this book go directly to the Golden Hat Foundation. With your help, we can change the world for people with autism. For more information about the Golden Hat Foundation and ways you can help, please visit our website: www.goldenhatfoundation.org
"I simply couldn't conceive of how devastating it would be not to be able to hear my children's voices. Not to be able to communicate with them, to hear them learn, grow, and express themselves verbally. How fortunate, how blessed I am. This overwhelmed me. I can talk to my children, I can respond to their needs and comfort them when they tell me they are unwell. I can tell them stories and hear them tell theirs." --Kate Winslet
Kate and Margret's stories, their personal email correspondence, and Keli's poetry give us a profound insight into the world of those living with autism. Kate has shared this story with some of the world's most famous people, posing the question: "What is important to you to express?" Their responses are a collection of intimate self-portraits and unique quotes. Among them are:
Christina Aguilera
Zac Efron
Julianne Moore
Maria Sharapova
Kobe Bryant
James Franco
Rosie O'Donnell
Ben Stiller
Michael Caine
Ricky Gervais
Michael Phelps
Meryl Streep
Kim Cattrall
Tom Hanks
John C. Reilly
Justin Timberlake
George Clooney
Elton John
Tim Robbins
Naomi Watts
Leonardo DiCaprio
Jude Law
Kristin Scott Thomas
Oprah Winfrey
Put together by Kate, Margret, and the dedicated team who work daily on the Golden Hat Foundation, this project has been a labor of love.
All the author proceeds from this groundbreaking book will benefit the Golden Hat Foundation, founded by Kate Winslet and Margret Ericsdottir to build innovative living campuses for people with autism and raise public awareness of their intellectual capabilities.
Author Notes
Kate Winslet is one of the world's best known and best-loved Academy Award-winning actresses. She made her film debut at the age of seventeen and is the youngest actress ever to have received six Academy Award nominations. Kate has two children, Mia and Joe, and divides her time between New York and the UK.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
While making the English-language recording of the Icelandic documentary on autism, A Mother's Courage, in 2009, actress Winslet befriended the film's creator, Margret Ericsdottir, and her young son Keli, who suffered from severe nonverbal autism. At age 10, Keli, who had been unreachable and deemed to have a mental capacity of a two-year-old, suddenly found expression through the use of a letterboard, with the shattering words: "I am real." In fact, Keli had been aware all the while yet unable to break the "locked bars" of autism. Winslet started up the Golden Hat Foundation-titled after Keli's poem about a magical golden hat that could talk-as a way to generate money for the cause and create learning communities for the children; she enlisted the support of famous faces who agreed to photograph themselves with Winslet's beatup trilby accompanied by a quote sounding in some fashion the urgency for expression. (Winslet's quote: "I'm here, and I love you.") From the first participant, Meryl Streep, through other familiar names often depicted in unfamiliar, stark black-and-white settings, all wearing or posing with the hat (John Krasinski wonders from the bathtub, "Let's take a chance!"; Emily Blunt vogues, "Is anybody listening?"; Elton John grins, "I'm nobody, but I'm alive and I matter"; Woody Allen covers his face, growling, "Get off my property"), these are engaging, moving public gestures for a notable cause. Testimonials by autistic young people including Keli lend the entire effort warmth and sincerity. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
A coffee-table book about autism? Academy Award winner Winslet came up with the idea after she narrated the Icelandic film A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism. She kept in close touch with the mom, Margret Ericsdottir, and her son, Kelli Thorsteinsson, who wrote a poem about a magical golden hat helping an autistic boy speak. To raise money for the foundation Winslet and Ericsdottir founded to build places for people with autism to live, the actress asked famous friends to take photos of themselves wearing her fedora anywhere on their bodies and write a caption. Vogue editor Anna Wintour holds the hat in her lap and writes, Does it come in any other color?! The celebrity photos (Leonardo DiCaprio, Conan O'Brien, Twiggy, Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Penelope Cruz) are interesting, but a more moving experience is found in photographs of kids diagnosed with nonverbal autism accompanied by their first words. At age 11, one boy said, Stop the war. It is killing too many soldiers. There are gems in this unusual autism book.--Springen, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Actress Winslet compiled this book in an effort to raise awareness about autism as well as raise funds for her autism nonprofit, the Golden Hat Foundation. After narrating A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism, a documentary about Margret Ericsdottir and her nonverbal, ASD-diagnosed son Keli, Winslet was inspired by Keli's story of learning to communicate via a letter board after years of silence. The titular "golden hat" of Winslet's book and foundation comes from one of Keli's poems. Pictures of celebrities wearing this special hat comprise a large percentage of the book. What is most moving, though, are the photos of young people with autism wearing the same hat. Proceeds from sales of this book will be used to pay for long-term living and working arrangements for adults with severe autism. VERDICT Readers will come away with an understanding that although children with autism cannot always speak, they have much to say. In addition, photos of many of today's most popular stars will have broad appeal. [See Prepub Alert, 10/31/11.]-T.L. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
