cover image BILL W., A DIFFERENT KIND OF HERO: The Story of Alcoholics Anonymous

BILL W., A DIFFERENT KIND OF HERO: The Story of Alcoholics Anonymous

Tom White, . . Boyds Mills, $16.95 (64pp) ISBN 978-1-59078-067-1

White, in his first book for children, ably distills events in the life of Bill Wilson (1895–1971) to demonstrate how and why he would go on to found Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill went through his adolescence without ever touching a drink "because of what he knew about the drinking problems of his father and his grandfather Wilson." But at age 20, as a commissioned second lieutenant in the army in 1917, he was offered a Bronx cocktail and "drank to excess" from the get-go. The author lays the groundwork for the drive and obsession with success that would lead to Bill's indefatigable efforts to launch AA. Bill's first obsessive "power drive" occurred when he was but nine years old, just after his father disappeared and Bill's family moved in with his maternal grandparents: Bill's grandfather challenged that "nobody but native Australians could make a boomerang that worked," and after six months of whittling, young Bill emerged with a successful boomerang. The same perseverance won him the spot as captain of the high school baseball team, first violin in the orchestra and senior class president. Yet he could not conquer his drinking problem alone. White smoothly weaves in the principles of AA (spelled out in detail in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions at the volume's close) as he charts Wilson's road to recovery. While this will be of greatest interest to readers who have had some exposure to alcoholism through their families, anyone interested in AA will find many answers here. A thoughtful, well-researched resource that profiles an accidental hero. Ages 10-14. (Apr.)