Wee Aaron Slater has grown up in a garden full of sweet fragrances, summer breezes, music, laughter and love.
As soon as he was able he began to draw, at first on the slate path with his bucket of chalk.
He still loved to sit on the swing with his family, feel the breeze and listen to stories read out loud. He decides the best thing in the whole world is to write stories. First step is to read stories, which proves much harder than at first thought. Aaron feels like giving up on his dream.
Soon he is old enough for school. He’s ready, he’s bright and keen to show the world who he is. Now is when he’ll learn to read! Alas, it isn’t to be, and he can’t understand it. His friends seem to have the knack, why not him?
The test comes when his new, fresh teacher gives her class an assignment.
‘Write me a story. Write something true.’
Aaron tries, and tries and…. tries, but as he’s already learnt, pictures are his thing, not words. But maybe, just maybe there is another way to tell a story.
The fourth picture book in the amazing series called The Questioneers – Aaron Slater, Illustrator is also told in rhyming verse.
Aaron is keen to learn to read and write like his friends, but for some reason it comes so much harder for him. As his confidence suffers so does his personality. He wants to hide his inability to read and does so by trying to blend into the background. His skills in drawing eventually bring him back out into the open and reveal his true self as he realises there are other ways to tell stories.
I liked the way he struggled on with his reading, making gradual progress. This shows a young reader that they too can achieve this with help and determination, and that although they may not be like their peers in one way, they will have their own way to shine.
Aaron’s confusion with reading and writing is aptly illustrated in jumbled letters and words often scattered at his feet, portraying the learning difficulty of dyslexia.
Aaron Slater, Illustrator is designed in a dyslexia-friendly font and other learning difficulties are discussed in the Author’s Note in the back of the book.
Author – Andrea Beaty
Illustrator – David Roberts
Picture Book
Take a peek inside here
Read a review of other books in this series (Click on a Cover)
(2021, Abrams Books, Thames & Hudson, Feelings, Dyslexic, Dyslexia, Reading, Writing, Story, Confidence, School, Art, Drawing, Imagination, Classroom)