Author Christiane Joy Allison and illustrator Liz Shine have hit the mark with their engaging and healing children’s book about a relative’s wrongful imprisonment, an offering the author calls “a bittersweet labor of love for both the illustrator and me.”
Why Can’t Uncle Come Home? addresses the anger, fear, and confusion a child feels when a beloved relative is sent to prison, and it explains how an innocent person might be convicted of a crime. The book succeeds in its own right, but it also fills a need, telling the young relatives of innocent inmates they are not alone.
“I read this book with my 6-year-old grandson. It is a great tool for opening conversation,” posted Vickie Fetterman to a support group for accused families. “He has been so affected by his father’s wrongful conviction.”
Christiane Joy Allison, “CJ” to her friends, knows her subject: Her book chronicles the reactions of her own niece and nephew when her husband, Clayton Allison, was accused and ultimately convicted of murder in the death of his and CJ’s daughter Jocelynn. At the time, while also trying to defend her husband and grieve for her daughter, CJ looked for books to help her young relatives understand what was happening, and found nothing. “I saw a need and I realized I had to fill it,” CJ said in a telephone interview last month. “I didn’t intend to write a children’s book. It just sort of landed on me.”
From the Rasmuson Foundation web site
On-line comments have been effusive. “This beautifully illustrated and accessibly written book fills a hole in the world of literature,” wrote Laura Ojedo in an Amazon review, “A must-read for children, and honestly for people of any age.”
CJ said she was gratified when she read her book recently to school children in her community of Wasilla, Alaska, and found her audience of 5-to-7-year-olds fully engaged. “I felt so blessed when one of the parents pulled me aside afterward and thanked me for tackling the subject, because they just had a friend experience wrongful conviction and felt lost how to explain it.”
When her husband was accused in 2009, CJ and an army of other supporters stepped forward in his defense, and they have stuck with the campaign even after his conviction in 2015.
In the course of the investigation, CJ showed herself both stronger and more ethical than a pair of Alaska state troopers, who thrust grisly autopsy photos in her face, ridiculed her faith in her husband, and misled her during a long and heartless interrogation.
The Allison family’s experience features a number of elements that show up frequently in these cases:
- a plausible alternative explanation (Clayton reported that the toddler fell down the stairs)
- a quick diagnosis by physicians unaware of the child’s complex medical history
- distraught parents subjected to cruel and deceptive interrogation tactics and
- a tangle of legal rulings that limited what CJ could say at trial
You can follow the family’s struggle through the Free Clayton Allison Facebook page.
The Rasmuson Foundation, which supports artists and non-profits in Alaska, has awarded CJ a grant to publish a follow-up book, Timmy and Kate Go to Visit.
Why Can’t Uncle Come Home? earned honorable mentions for its illustrations and cover design and for its handling of family issues in the 2018 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards from Story Monsters Ink, a magazine about children’s literature for teachers, librarians, and parents.
CJ, a writer by both nature and training, has an MBA in Management & Strategy and a BA in Journalism & Public Communications.
As CJ predicted, Why Can’t Uncle Come Home? is the only children’s book I could find that addresses wrongful conviction. Several books deal with parents in prison, including these titles that have received generally good customer reviews: The Night Dad Went to Jail; Far Apart, Close in Heart; and My Daddy’s in Jail. Customer reviews also give a thumbs-up to Maybe Days, a book written for children entering foster care. The State of New Hampshire publishes this list featuring more titles for children with parents in prison.
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