The Orphans' Nine Commandments

When Roger Bechan was six, his mother packed his suitcase and told him they were going to Oklahoma City to visit an uncle. Instead, she took him to the Oklahoma Society for the Friendless, where he began a long journey through three orphanages and several foster homes. With all the color of the 1930s, this is a story of survival within an impersonal child-care system, a story filled with vivid characters, pathos and surprising humor, and the tenacity of a young boy who longs for a normal home--and can't understand why his mother abandoned him or who his father is. No wonder he and his orphan friends omit the tenth commandment--to "honor your father and mother."

As a teenager, the boy finds a home with a supportive couple in a small Oklahoma oil town. Roger Bechan becomes William Holman, who obtains degrees from two universities, marries and raises three sons, and becomes the youngest director of the San Francisco Public Library and an award-winning book designer. Late in life, he discovers the identity of his father--and a new family.

Author: William Roger Holman
Publisher: Texas Christian University Press
Published: 10/11/2007
Pages: 238
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.28lbs
Size: 9.32h x 6.30w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780875653556

Review Citation(s):
School Library Journal 12/01/2007

About the Author
William Holman served as head librarian, Pan American University; Director of the Rosenberg Library in Galveston; Head of the San Antonio Public Library, Director of the San Francisco Library, and Professor, the Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas. He is a mentor for the Orphan Foundation of America and has represented the group on national television.

Mr. Holman and his wife, Barbara, publish under the imprint, "Roger Beacham, Publisher" and have produced such books as Harold Billings' Texas Beast Fables and This Bitterly Beautiful Land: A Texas Commonplace Book, considered by many the most beautiful book ever published in Texas. His avocations are golf, book collecting, and racing sailboats. The Holmans live in Austin.