My journey

Hello!  My name is Sienna Imperato.  I am 12 years old, live on a farm, and I’ve been homeschooling since I repeated kindergarten 2x because of my dyslexia.  Through incredible support and a couple of amazing teachers I can now read!  I am so excited to introduce you to my first self-published book.  It started as a homeschool project idea and snowballed into a passion and career path for me.  I’ve spent 6 months dictating over video chat to my amazing teacher and co-writer Meghan Cronan.  My ideas and personality are really able to show through this work.  My teacher not only transcribed all my words but taught me my school curriculum imbedded into my creative writing sessions.  I was so thirsty to keep going and add more sessions.  My once emotional block and aversions to books and reading have unlocked through this project.  One of my mom’s most talented friends she met in college is my incredible illustrator, Jeanne Rewa. She patiently gathered my ideas, drew entirely new subjects for her, and made the pictures in my mind come to life.

This trilogy project is important to me because during certain times in my life I thought I’d never be able to read and would cringe with the idea of books or reading. 

A little more detail on my reading journey is that

I started out in a private school in kindergarten with well intentioned teachers and parents thinking they were doing the very best for me.  I struggled being able to see even the letters on the paper without it making me dizzy, nauseous or even so tired I would just fall asleep in class.  My vision was otherwise perfect and I’m very observant and pay close attention to detail.  My first kindergarten teacher suggested I just needed the gift of time and so my parents agreed for me to repeat kindergarten.  In that second attempt I was also enrolled in extra tutoring but wasn’t making much progress.  I was exhausted, discouraged and felt socially awkward like I was still going to be in kindergarten as an adult!  I had learned helplessness.  My parents knew the path had to change.  We went through a series of tests to try and help my parents know how I learn and it turns out I have a genus IQ and like 3 different kinds of dyslexia!  At that time they transitioned me out of traditional school and started to focus on what I was already good at. This made me confident in the idea of learning but when we would try and work with “sight words” I’d just shut down and get major anxiety.

Then we met an amazing dr (Dr Angie) who worked with the Davis method and taught me how to model my letters in clay and make little figures and clay scenes describing the sight words.  She taught me how to use my dyslexia as a strength!  Then Miss Meghan came into the picture who had a background in working with Dyslexia through the 

Orton-Gillingham Approach which is what my old school was using.  Miss Meghan was so kind and willing to help me she spent time with Dr Angie learning the Davis method and adapting and creating new for her ways.  We have been working together for about 5 years and I am so grateful for her heart as a teacher and her willingness and her own creativity.  When I came to her with my “I want to write a book” and she said ok let’s do it! I immediately felt excited and encouraged!

I once heard that whatever is hard for you actually becomes your gift to share, and I’m so excited to share not only my creativity but my story so that others can be encouraged.

I’m excited to have a direction with my career, but also to make new, completely original ideas to be shared and enjoyed by others.  People who have struggled in school or even in reading like me to be encouraged to pursue their dreams and let their imagination determine what they can do.  My desire is that my transparency with dyslexia will give kids hope and drive to work hard to overcome their obstacles.  My book’s content combines cultures, acceptance of differences, life lessons, and overcoming fear.

One of my biggest challenges when first learning to read is that any variation of font would make any word I knew completely unrecognizable.  With this in mind, the text and layout are designed to make the book more accessible for dyslexic readers.

I believe my readers will be able to connect with my characters, enjoy the banter, be captivated by the adventure and keep reading to find out what happens next.  I believe my book series is valuable to offer community among my readers, alternative entertainment, and a great solution to what you are going to buy as a gifts for the tweens in your life and avid readers of all ages.