Aaron Slater, Illustrator

Aaron loves to grow flowers, draw pictures and, above all, listen to stories. He cannot wait to create his own tales, but first, he must learn to read.

However, despite his very best efforts, Aaron finds it hard to make sense of the squiggles on the page. As time goes by, his struggle with words chips away at his confidence and Aaron loses his flamboyance. He starts wearing neutral clothing, keeps his head down and buries the jumble of anxious feelings deep inside. When his teacher sets everyone the task of writing a story to read to the class, Aaron is filled with dread. How can he tell the stories that are in his head if the words will not flow?

Lyrical, rhyming text works in perfect harmony with spectacular watercolour, pen and ink illustrations. There is a wealth of detail to explore, with lots of visual clues to help children understand Aaron’s emotions. The typeface used is "Dyslexie", a font with subtly-adjusted letter shapes, specifically designed for dyslexic readers, and set against a plain background, making it clear to read.

This wonderfully creative tale celebrates self-expression and demonstrates that there is more than one way to tell a story.