About

The Founding of BOSC Books

I am Irene Slovak, founder of BOSC Books. BOSC was conceived out of the realization that parents of children with disabilities could not find help, for there were no books or places to seek advice.

When my second son was born, my husband and I felt that he behaved differently from my older boy. But then we felt that all children are unique. As time went on, we saw that our young son had some difficulty walking, talking and his reactions were not what we expected. He walked on his toes and his verbal responses were an echo of what we said. His facial expressions were stoic; without a smile or frown or delight. Something was not what it should be.

So we began, as many parents do, the long and arduous task of looking for answers. After many visits to a variety of professionals;  physicians, therapists, psychiatrists and others, we were finally told that indeed he had a disability, and the label was autism. Now we had a diagnosis but we could not find someone who could help us in giving our son his proper therapy.

Where, what, how?  There were more questions.  We did not know where to begin, what to look for and how to help the child.   It was only finding and speaking with other parents of children who had special needs, that we were able to get some answers. At that time, there were few places that offered help. The parents of children with similar problems organized themselves, and we started schools and other facilities for our children. Slowly, it became obvious that there were many children with special needs. Some could be integrated into public schools, while more seriously disturbed children needed other facilities. There were only a handful of special schools and programs.

My husband and I were fortunate in that our son was improving greatly from the help he was receiving. During these years, my husband and I pursued our individual careers  in teaching. When after twenty years, I retired from teaching, I told my older son that I no longer had my days occupied with school. He looked at me and asked,  “Now, Mom, what will you do with all your free time?” I had not given this much thought but it must have been swimming around in my subconscious because without skipping a beat, I responded, “I’m going to start a business. I feel it’s payback time. I owe the parents of children who come after my son, something that will help them.”

There was much to think about.  I had the name in my mind;  BOSC,  Books on Special Children. I would organize, edit and publish a directory where parents and professionals could go when there was a need for a facility. In addition to the directory, we also sold books for adults in the field of special education.  At the beginning we focused on the people with learning disabilities.  And the directory emphasized that area.  There was a need for more information regarding a variety of disabilities. So we carried books in various categories, such as assessing and evaluating; careers and vocations; reading and communications, and others.

How were we to let those interested, know of our existence?  So we sent out catalogs to various people and organizations in this growing field. Very soon we received letters and phone calls asking us for copies of the catalog and to be placed on our mailing list. The mailing list grew rapidly. The computer age was just beginning.  Our first computer was the Kaypro.  It consisted of two floppy disk drives: ‘A’ drive for the application, what we called the word processor, and ‘B’ drive on which we wrote our files. It was a great step up from the typewriter.

There were very few types or sizes of fonts and a limit on what could be printed. Nevertheless, our first directory was published: BOSC-Books on Special Children published the BOSC Directory-Facilities for People with Learning Disabilities. We had a number of Schools and Independent Living Programs, Colleges and Vocational Training Programs, and Agencies from all over the United States. And there were ten articles written for us, by prestigious people in the fields of medicine, psychiatry, psychology, dentistry, special education, reading and others. Through the years, we have had others write for our directory. We later acquired newer computers and software as they appeared in the market. We gathered from many publishers, the newest books in the field of special education, to be sold through our catalog. It was distributed to a special list of people nationwide. The catalog gave our readers avenue for making comments and suggestions.

We found that our directory became obsolete in a couple of years because of the changes in the field of special education.  We responded first to remarks that our directory was being taken out of the resource library because it was an easy target in size.  Then to counteract the remark that our directory was dated in its use, we changed the cover from the bound book to a post binder with loose leaf pages.  The pages could be changed and thereby the cost could be controlled. We were very cognizant of the remarks sent to us.

As we grew older,  we found that the needs of BOSC clients were becoming too much for us.   We had to look for some one or more who would continue the company and the needs of  its clients.

We  found her.  Marcia  Young came to us through the internet.  We met her and saw that she has the same exuberance and attitude that brought us to BOSC. We wish her all the success in the world and expect that her tenure with BOSC will yield all that she and her clients wish.

-Irene Slovak  Sept, 2002

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