Roger Essley, dyslexic writer and artist, now has his work in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, but he was 40 years old before he submitted his first children's book. Amended
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Roger Essley's artwork is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, but he was 40 years old before he submitted his first children's book. The reply he received back from the publisher for that first effort was not encouraging. "We don't like your story, because we don't think it is very well written, but we like your pictures," was the message, said Essley. Equal parts education and inspiration, Essley's presentation at Margaret Chase Smith School Thursday was both about his own experiences overcoming dyslexia and how to use pictures to find and exploit the most interesting part of a story — its "hook". Diagnosed with dyslexia when he was in third grade, Essley gravitated to drawing when he was in elementary school, because it was the one skill people complimented him on. When he was writing his first children's book much later in life at 40, Essley said he realized the importance of connecting pictures and writing. For many people, pictures are the entrance to writing, but it is seldom taught that way in school, he said. As artist in residence at the Margaret Chase Smith School, Essley taught the Tellingboard process, a method of telling stories with a series of 13 pictures. By telling a story first through crude drawings, students — particularly those with problems writing or reading — can focus on the storytelling process without getting bogged down in the mechanics of writing. "Storyboarding helps you get out of your head onto paper what you are thinking about something," said Essley. He told fifth-graders at Margaret Chase Smith School that he had to rewrite his first book about 40 times before it was accepted, four years after he had first submitted it. He gained entrance into the world of publishing through his skills as an artist, he said. "They found out about me because of the pictures, and then I learned to write," said Essley. "Why did it take till I was 45? Because I was afraid." What many students took away from the presentation was the courage to believe they, too, could write. Megan Davis, 11, of Skowhegan, said after listening to Essley that she thought it was possible to become a writer. Dillon Perkins, 11, also identified with his story: "Now I want to be a writer more. Because he said he wasn't a very good writer when he was little, and I am not a good writer right now, but I like writing." Amanda Darge, 11, of Skowhegan, said Essley "inspired her." "He made me think of how no one thought he could do anything, but then he showed them that he could," she said. Asked what she learned she said, "If somebody says something about you, you don't have to believe it." |  |