Sam: The Boy Behind the Mask

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist journeys into the life of Sam Lightner, a young boy born with a rare, disfiguring growth that distorts the left side of his face, from the dangerous operation to remove the malformation, to his lapse into a life-threatening coma, to his struggle back to life, in a poignant true story about a remarkable boy, medical miracles, and the meaning of hope. 75,000 first printing.

Tom Hallman, Jr. won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his series of articles in The Oregonian on Sam Lightner. He has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist twice before, and has been the recipient of every major writing award for journalism, including multiple American Society of Newspaper Editors awards, a Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, a National Headliner Award, and a Nixon National Writing Award. A reporter for more than twenty-five years, Hallman has been at The Oregonian since 1980, and is currently a senior reporter specializing in features and narratives.