Well when I talk to kids, I always tell them, in fact I opened my presentation today saying, “I have a secret.” I had all the adults cover their ears. They were quite, for the most part helped in that. Usually when I talk to teachers I get about a 50% compliance rate when I ask them to cover their ears. And I say, “I have a secret. And the secret is: I hated to read.” And I often get applause. I sometimes get gasps.
Sometimes I get boos, which is always encouraging. But it’s true. I just wasn’t much of a reader. Now I have a daughter who has dyslexia. And I always point out to kids that’s a whole different thing. And with good teachers and good help you can overcome it. But it my case I just didn’t get the point. I thought it was kinda boring. And for me, there was a book, and I always tell them, “There’s a book out there that’s like your best friend. And when you find it, your life will change.”
And for me that book was Charlotte’s Web. And, of course, that’s always met with lots of “oohs” and “ahhs”. And I tell them that in my opinion it was written just for me. I know that Kate DiCamillo happens to like it, too, but it was not written for her, it was written for me. And that was life-changing. But I was quite old, and even into college I was a slow reader. I still am a slow reader. I think that’s why I write short books.
The One and Only Ivan, for example, has a lot of white space. And when I show that to kids who are reluctant readers, and they see that first page, which is basically two or three lines: “Hello. My name is Ivan. I’m a gorilla. It’s not as easy as it looks.” And they go, “Wow, that’s the first chapter.” They’re hooked because it means they can read what a lot of kids call them “fat books”. They can read a fat book, and a book with sophisticated content, but they can get through it.