This is my first published work, okay, rather, self-published.

My second grade teacher discovered I basically couldn’t read or spell, but she was helpless to assist. I was sinking fast. The writing in this tiny book is both hilarious and a bit sad. It took another year for dyslexia to be diagnosed, but I was undaunted. I had a burning urge to understand how everything worked. I took apart the vacuum cleaner weekly, and I wanted to make stuff that explained what I’d learned. In 1962, I saw a National Geographic issue about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the ghostly human-cast forms discovered in Pompeii. I had to get to work: I’ve spent the last 45 years making “art that explains,” often for National Geographic.

Sometimes learning “disabilities” really aren’t; rather, they are “abilities” in the shadows.

I wouldn’t exchange mine for anything.