Review Detail

‘Aaron Slater, Illustrator,’ by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts, tells the story of a young boy who sees images more than he knows how to write about them. His dyslexia keeps him from doing quite as well as he wants in school with his reading, and when his second grade teacher asks his class to write a story, Aaron can’t write a single word. The difficulty is upsetting to him, and he feels his dreams of storytelling are too far out of reach. When he learns that telling a story doesn’t mean you have to use words, he begins to excel, thriving through the images he creates in his head, even before he can make one doodle or drawing on paper.

The graph paper backgrounds and bountiful use of colors, along with the incorporation of his teacher and friends into the drawings and pages he makes up in his mind, are beautiful. There was one image in particular in which he is leading the charge, flying with large wings in front of his classmates and his teacher, carrying a colored pencil. However, the colored pencil looks more like a baton, as though he is conducting the orchestra of people behind him as he shares how they relate to the story he is telling.

He continues to work hard on his reading and drawing, always adding to the Illustrator’s Garden at the end of his school hallway. Aaron’s story is timeless and true, one of someone who wants something and wants more than anything to have it, despite the circumstances that are seemingly in the way.

It was especially neat that the story was written in Dyslexie, a typeface specially designed for people with dyslexia. It was also interesting to learn in the author’s note in the back of the book that fifteen to twenty percent of all people have dyslexia. The story does a wonderful job showcasing how Aaron’s dyslexia informs who he is, rather than defining him. He is more than capable and remains true to himself, never veering from his goals.