To mark Dyslexia Awareness Month and publication of The Clockwork Key, the first in the Relic Hunters series written by Vashti Hardy, illustrator Rebecca Sheerin shares her experiences of growing up with severe dyslexia, how art made a difference and what it was like working on a Barrington Stoke book.
I grew up in Leeds and in 2017 moved to Edinburgh to study Illustration at university – or, as I would explain to my grandparents, to learn how to tell stories with drawings. In 2020 I graduated and never left Scotland. I now work from a small studio not too far from my home – the smallest flat in Leith.
I have always been a bookworm, but growing up severely dyslexic meant I mostly listened to audiobooks. My brother and I had stacks of tapes and a tiny black tape player we kept in the hall between our bedrooms. I remember often pretending to be asleep so my brother would have to be the one to get out of bed and flip the tape over.
I did love books, but, as I struggled so much with the words, I often just looked at the pictures. One Christmas I got a copy of Gulliver’s Travels illustrated by Chris Riddell. His drawings were so lively and full of detail that I didn’t have to read the words, which, to my eyes, were much too small and just danced across the shiny paper anyway. This first experience of being wide eyed and captivated by a drawing impressed on me the importance and impact of a really good picture book.
School, when you cannot read, is hard! But I could draw, and I could build things, and I could make a mean fruit salad in food tech. Unfortunately, when it came to test day, no matter how much I remembered about the Cuban Missile Crisis or that a² + b² = c², if you’re falling at the first hurdle of reading the question, then you’re not going to feel very clever.
I always loved creative writing. I remember my English teacher taking me aside to congratulate me on a poem I had written. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the mark she had wanted to give me because … SPAG – the dreaded “Spelling Punctuation And Grammar”.
SPAG felt like a lock on the door to the house where all the clever people lived. I wanted to learn and had much to say, but dyslexia caged my intelligence and curiosity inside words I could never access.
Eventually, I made it through school, and at the first chance I had I switched to only studying Art. Then, when I went away to university, I was suddenly in a room with people who understood my mind. They didn’t care if I mixed up “their”, “there” and “they’re”, or think that being good at drawing was a consolation prize because I couldn’t do anything cleverer. Half my year group were dyslexic, and they were the most creative and brilliant bunch of talented people I had ever met. Suddenly, I was not stupid.
When Barrington Stoke got in touch with the prospect of illustrating Vashti Hardy’s new series, The Relic Hunters, I felt incredibly excited to get to work on my first professional project. But more so I felt privileged to get to draw for an audience who, like me, want to access the limitless, exciting world of books but so often struggle.
It matters – the text, the spacing, the colour of the paper, the pictures to give your tired eyes a break and to guide you along the way.
It matters that we hold the door open wide to all abilities. When you’re eight, you don’t want to read a book for five year olds; you want to ride in a Steam Flyer with Will and fight clockwork knights with Mabel!
I have been in a book shop, aged ten, flicking through books with dazzling covers that I automatically knew I couldn’t read. I wish there had been Barrington Stoke books for me growing up, and it feels very satisfying to be a part of making one now.
The Relic Hunters Book 1: The Clockwork Key is out now.
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Mabel and Will Greystone are looking forward to an exciting holiday with their aunt Lucy, a famous relic hunter in the land of Marvolia.
Using an ancient map, they are searching for the legendary lost town of Umber, famous for the invention of clockwork, which was mysteriously abandoned hundreds of years ago. The only other clue they have is a strange old key left behind by the last inhabitant of the town, but they have no idea what the key is for.
Also on the hunt for Umber is devious Byron Cogsworth, desperate for the glory such an important discovery will bring. Can Mabel, Will and Aunt Lucy find Umber before him? And what secrets will the clockwork key unlock …?