Gypsum lad’s ‘Sidelined’ is the story of a family’s triumph over tragedy

A local lad’s new book offers a kid’s-eye view of a family crisis and how they pulled through it together.

“Sidelined: Kenyon’s Story,” follows Kenyon Lovato’s family and their winding, often frustrating journey through the diagnosis, treatment and care of Kenyon’s older brother Quintin, whose daily battle with epilepsy and Tourette’s syndrome consumed the family for years.

In the delightfully touching “Sidelined,” 8-year-old Kenyon highlights the challenges families face when caring for someone with increased needs and how young children may react when others receive more care and attention than they do.

“Kids can be jealous of one another,” said Hannah Lovato, the mother of Kenyon, Quintin and three other Lovato kids.

A book is born

Colorado lawmakers passed Jack’s Law in 2017, allowing a parent or caregiver to come to the school and administer a dose of medical marijuana to their child. Quintin’s Amendment to Jack’s Law allows school nurses and designated personnel to give students like Quintin their prescribed CBD-based medications.

Quintin suffers from epilepsy and Tourette’s syndrome and has since March 8, 2014 when he fell to the ground with his first grand mal seizure. By 2017, he had fully developed Tourette’s syndrome, complete with head bobbing and vocal tics. Quintin’s father often carried him up the stairs because his son’s legs refused to work. Quintin sometimes suffered emotional breakdowns and cried inconsolably for hours.

After trying everything, the family finally added Haleigh’s Hope CBD oil to Quintin’s daily medications. He started to improve in a week, Hannah said.

Quintin needs three doses a day, one in the middle of his school day. Quintin’s parents give him his morning and evening medications, but sometimes he had to miss the midday dose because the family is large and both parents work.

Quintin’s Amendment changes that.

After Colorado lawmakers, led by local Democrat Rep. Dylan Roberts, pushed Quintin’s Amendment through the state legislature, Hannah was invited to speak at all kinds of events. Kris Morwood writes children’s books and approached Hannah during one of those events. They started talking, as folks will do and came up with a book idea.

Kenyon started writing journal entries. Morwood and Kenyon worked through them, illustrator David Parker made them visually stunning and “Sidelined” was born.

Kenyon celebrated his first book signing earlier this week in his Brush Creek Elementary School third-grade classroom. His second is Saturday in Lakewood’s OH Zone bookstore with Morwood and Parker.