Beyond the Book: Background information when reading I, Coriander

Beyond the Book

This article relates to I, Coriander

Sally Gardner is an inspiration to all those children struggling with dyslexia. She is so severely dyslexic that it wasn't until she was 14 that she was able to read her first book. She says she can't explain how she finally learned to read but 'at 14 something clicked and I could read. I read the whole of Wuthering Heights. Every time before I tried to read there would be the awful finger-following-every-word, speaking each one out loud. But you're not reading, you're on that awful tram track and you haven't gone into the story.' She was labeled unteachable and sent to a school for maladjusted children. Despite this, she gained a degree with highest honors at a leading London art college, followed by a scholarship to a theater school, became a very successful costume designer and then an author. She has been described as 'an idiosyncratic genius' by London's Sunday Times. I, Coriander is her first book for older readers, following a number for younger children, and she is currently working on her second. Find out more about inspiring author by reading her interview at BookBrowse.

Did you know? Sally Gardner changed her name from Sarah when she was young, as Sally was easier to spell.

"I really have to think about long words," she explained. "If I can't spell them I won't include them unless they are really necessary or are simply wonderful words." - Sally Gardner.

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This "beyond the book article" relates to I, Coriander. It originally ran in August 2005 and has been updated for the March 2007 paperback edition. Go to magazine.