Brilliant Minds 30 Dyslexic Heroes who Changed our World by mother daughter team Shannon Meyerkort and Mia-Rose Meyerkort was inspired when Shannon was in search of a book about dyslexic role models to share with her daughter who was recently diagnosed with dyslexia. Having been in that exact boat myself, I understand that deep desire to source this kind of empowering information that could be a source of inspiration and demonstrate that having dyslexia doesn’t restrict you from achieving your dreams.
In this book, it states “dyslexia is thought to affect at least one in every ten people in Australia”. Despite this statistic, our personal experience has shown such a limited understanding about dyslexia. Often when my daughter tells people she has dyslexia the replies are often along the lines off, “I have a bit of that”, “I sometimes write letters backwards” or some people talk slower and louder to her (she quickly informs them that it doesn’t affect her hearing an is unrelated to intelligence). Books that feature neurodiverse people are so important for every library collection; they inform, inspire and are excellent gateways to important conversation about learning differences. They are essential for representation, making children with dyslexia feel included as they see people with the same learning difference achieve and these stories help everyone build empathy when they read about people who have different experiences to their own.
This book profiles people from diverse backgrounds with varied and rich experiences such as athletes, entrepreneurs, medical pioneers, authors, filmmakers, actors and scientists to name a few. They are referred to in the blurb as “record-breakers, game-changers and risk takers”. Included are Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, Erin Brokovich, activist, Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad an astronaut, Anne Burke, Supreme Court Justice and filmmaker Stephen Spielberg to name a few .Each person’s story begins with a bright double page spread featuring their date and place of birth and an inspiring quote from the person (which my daughter particularly appreciated) accompanied by a full page illustration by Amy Blackwell. Following this is another double page spread with information about their story. Each person’s story reflects on their time at school which was often fraught with experiences of being in an education system that did not understand, or support children with dyslexia, although some of the people had a positive schooling experience or a teacher that was life changing for them. Many of the people share their feelings while at school, of feeling less than, being teased and struggling with the laborious task of reading and writing.
It is fascinating to read in each and every story that it was in the trials and struggles that each person learned about their talents and strengths and used these throughout their lives with astonishing success. Each of these people demonstrated tenacity, vision, creative problem solving skills, a mental toughness and most took responsibility for their own learning, devising ways they could learn content they were presented with. Many of these people excelled in their field and it is fascinating to see that their struggles either fuelled them and made them more determined to succeed, or lessons learned early in life informed their future beliefs and practices.
This book is an empowering compilation of motivating stories that shows out of tremendous struggle great success can come with perseverance, creative problem solving, grit, an unwavering desire to achieve a dream and use obstacles as opportunities. These stories show in an accessible and engaging way that dyslexia is not a barrier to success and struggling at school does not define your future path in life, success can be achieved.