An Ailing Boy Gains A New Life in Poetry

His skin was ghostly white. Tubes were everywhere. His body was rail thin.

So sick was Mattie Stepanek that doctors -- who had given the Upper Marlboro boy just two to five days to live -- asked him if there was anything he wanted before he died -- perhaps a new toy or a favorite food.

Yes, he answered. He wanted someone to publish his poems, not so he could make money, but so others could find in his words the strength and resolve that he'd found in himself and the world around him.

Fast-forward five months. Mattie, who suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, is sitting in his wheelchair at Barnes & Noble in Alexandria chatting it up with friends and waiting to read from "Journey Through Heartsongs," the sequel to his first book, "Heartsongs," a bestseller.

His fans at the bookstore don't know it yet, but the 11-year-old is about to ink a lucrative new book deal that could make Mattie a household name. The New York-based publisher Hyperion is expected to announce this week that it will sign the boy to a multi-book deal to compile and write more "Heartsongs."

Think of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series.

Hyperion, which is owned by Disney and has published such books as "The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis" and "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff," will partner with VSP Books of Alexandria, the family-owned company that volunteered in June to grant Mattie's wish and print his first book.

Cheryl Shaw Barnes, founder and owner of VSP with her husband, Peter, confirmed the partnership, but a Hyperion spokeswoman said yesterday she could not discuss the deal because details are being worked out.

"It got too big for us," says Barnes. "This is going to be wonderful for Mattie and for us, too. We were starting to get more requests than we could print. The orders keep coming in, and we're just a small mom-and-pop publisher."

For Mattie, who is in New York today to appear on "Good Morning America," the pending deal marks yet another turn in a life marked by pain and suffering. Since he was released in July from a three-month stay at Children's Hospital in the District, his life has been busy.

He's gone on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and appeared on Jerry Lewis's Labor Day telethon. He's had book signings around the Washington area. And he eagerly signed books at Hooters in Baltimore, where scantily dressed women served buffalo wings in the background.

The poems, accompanied by Mattie's own illustrations, are uncomplicated, even dreamy. He writes about God and trees and teddy bears and flowers. After the Sept. 11 attacks, Mattie wrote one poem about the dark day and another imploring people to stop judging one another.

Cheryl Barnes, who brought in volunteers to help fill book orders, says some purchasers told her of being suicidal until they read the boy's poems.

"So many people have called and written to say Mattie changed their lives, that his poems of prayer and hope and believing moved them," says Barnes, herself a children's author. "Really, I do believe that Mattie's story would not have happened were it not for the grace of God. How else do you explain what's happening here?"