I recently came across the Open Dyslexic Font, which was created by by Abelardo Gonzalez. The font is weighted at the bottom so the gravity allows the letters to stay put on the line.

When I found it, I’d just finished making my first Little Horrors book, The Swamp Man, available as an iBook on the iPad. I realised it wouldn’t take me long to make a dyslexic font version, so I did. I made the pages cream too, which involved reworking the artwork, but I soon got photoshop to automate that part of the job. So, it will be interesting to know what people think.

My book Craig M’nure, was written for Barrington Stoke, so I’ve learned a little about books for Dyslexics. I know that the text hasn’t been written with dyslexics in mind, but the sentences are short and I think the text is pretty uncomplicated. Besides. The one thing that I took away from my Barrington Stoke experience is that Dyslexics find it much easier to read when they “hear the author’s voice”. Then the difficult word constructions seem to be blown away with the extra voice working in their head.

Dyslexia is such a muddly word. I’ve come to realise that no one is “normal” and that dyslexia comes if many forms and degrees of complexity. I read perfectly well, I do when the letters stop moving! It’s writing that is the hard part. I know that writers deal in words. I’ve watched them do it, they could write with their eyes closed. They think and “see” in words.

Last week I had the opportunity of watching other children’s authors do their thing at Peter’s Books in Birmingham, where The Reading Agency had set up a Chatterbooks Day. The Author Fleur Hitchcock was telling us how sensitive she is to smell and how dyslexic she is an how hard writing is for her. Fleur’s Daughter has the gift too, she can sort her school friends clothes out by smell and return them to the right people!

Fleaur was asking for a description, a word to express smells or emotions. One child suggested a connective. A shadow passed over Fleur’s face, then she admitted that she had no idea what a connective is. (I’m not sure – I think and is a connective?” I recognised that look. Proper writers know what a connective is. Their world is made up of such things. I’m a storyteller. I use words and pictures to tell stories. Fleur uses words and smells! Others use dance or maths or colour or shape or taste to tell their stories. Sadly, the education system, which is run for and by word people, is pretty much unaware of the perceptions of a large percentage of those they hope to educate.

My world is made up of ideas and stories, and they tumble around in my head faster than I can write them down. Since I’ve talked openly about this, I’ve found many others are the same, and have often seen a smile of relief on a child’s face when they realise that my problem is their problem too and that they are not alone in the world.

I think that is what happens when I read. I get caught up in the idea, begin second guessing, in my conversation with the author’s voice, and tumble ahead of the words to see what happens next. the words on the page try to catch up and, in their haste, jumble up on the page. Maybe if they are weighted, they will find it harder to fall over and get mixed up with each other!

You can get a sample copy of the book by clicking here or on the picture to the right.

I would love to know what you think and would really appreciate some feedback. It’s only available for the iPad at the moment.  I am thinking of doing a PDF version to read on other systems and would also love to know if this would be useful for you too.

Also, if you’ve read this far, let me know why you would like a free copy and, if I think it’s a good reason, I’ll let you have a code to get a free copy from the iTunes store! I’ve five to give away.