Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver: On Writing for Children With Dyslexia

[A version of this interview appears in the November/December 2024 issue of Writer’s Digest.]

You may remember The Fonz played by Henry Winkler in the 1970s sitcom “Happy Days.” That role propelled him to fame. Winkler’s part started off as a secondary character, but by the third show, Fonzie was the primary character and “Happy Days” continued to be a top-rated show until 1977.

Once the doors closed on “Happy Days,” in 1984, Winkler would discover many actors’ worst nightmare—being typecast. The acting jobs dried up. Eventually, he landed some terrific gigs as producer and director. Some of these included “MacGyver,” The Waterboy, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” Night Shift, and Arrested Development. There were some acting roles too: All I Want for Christmas Is You, “Royal Pains,” and the “Hank Zipzer” TV series, and more recently, “Barry.”

In 2002 a Broadway show he was in, closed. Winkler headed back home to Los Angeles. He felt lost. Not knowing what to do, he went to his agent, Alan Berger. Alan knew exactly what Winkler should do, “Write children’s books about his experiences growing up with dyslexia.” Winkler responded, “I can’t do that. I have dyslexia.”

To that Berger responded that he’d introduce Winkler to his good friend Lin Oliver, an accomplished children’s book writer, television producer, and co-founder of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). “Meet with her for lunch,” said Berger, “and see how it goes from there.”

Winkler did. Over lunch, they discussed ideas for a children’s book about a boy with dyslexia. It would be based on Winkler’s experiences growing up, his difficulties at school and at home. That book was Hank Zipzer. Penguin Putnum gave Winkler and Oliver a contract for two books. During the publication process, Penguin Putnum approached the two authors with a suggestion to use their special font, Dyslexie, created by Christian Boer, a graphic designer who also has dyslexia. Once the writers saw this font, they knew they had to use it.

Order a copy today:

Bookshop.org | Amazon

[WD uses affiliate links.]

Oliver explains, “the descending marks of the letters are longer, and the ascending marks of the letters are higher with more spaces between words. The margins are larger too.” These changes make it much easier for someone with dyslexia to read. To see what Dyslexie font looks like, pick up a copy of Hank Zipzer from your local bookstore or library.

Winkler and Oliver “work best in two-to-three-hour chunks” on their book series. As they get closer to publication, they may work five to seven days a week. To accommodate for Winkler’s dyslexia, he walks around Oliver’s apartment, sharing ideas with her. Then Oliver writes them down on her computer. Winkler says, “and we argue over every word.” The two want to get every sentence as good as they can. Because children’s books are not as long as books for adults, every word takes up real estate. They must be mindful of the quality of their work but also the quantity of words. They must be cognizant of the vocabulary used; children will read these books themselves. No child wants to struggle with difficult vocabulary, especially if that child has dyslexia.

The first two Hank Zipzer books were so popular that Penguin Putnam signed the authors on for two more books. Those 2 books soon became 4 and 4 became 17 books. Winkler and Oliver had themselves a bestselling series!

Winkler was stunned, “in all my years I never imagined I could become an author at all. Now I am and we have 38 books written, including our brand-new series, Detective Duck.”

The 38 books include 17 in the Hank Zipzer series, 12 books in the Here’s Hank series (the prequel to Hank Zipzer, before Hank was diagnosed with dyslexia), two books for Ghost Buddies, and three in the Alien Superstar series. They will write four books for their new series. Right now, book #1 Detective Duck: The Case of the Strange Splash, is already out in bookstores, and book #2 Detective Duck: The Case of the Missing Tadpole, just published on October 15th, 2024. Not bad for someone who has severe dyslexia.

Order a copy today:

Bookshop.org | Amazon

For Detective Duck, they would need a new illustrator. It turns out Writer’s Digest magazine has played an important role here. Fifty-two years ago, Lin Oliver co-founded the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators with her writer friend, Stephen Mooser. They had both just graduated college and were working as children’s book writers. They discovered there were very few resources for children’s authors out there. Oliver and Mooser each took $50 of their own money to place an ad in Writer’s Digest for their new course, which became SCBWI.

Twenty-five years later, an illustrator named Dan Santat would see an ad in WD for a conference put on by SCBWI. Dan attended that conference, bringing his portfolio with him. When the other children’s book writers saw his portfolio, Oliver said, “there was a great competition to sign him up to do books.” Santat would win the Caldecott Medal for the illustrations he did for his book, The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (2014), which he also wrote. However, it would be another 20 years, bringing us to the present, before Santat was available to illustrate for Winkler and Oliver. He is now the illustrator for Detective Duck and is “having the time of my life.”

Santat sometimes uses letters for his drawings. For example, he took the letter D and turned it on its side so that the rounded part became the belly of the duck. The flat side of the D became her back. Next, he took another D and placed it on its side to become the wing of the duck. The duck’s name is Willow Feathers McBeaver, because a beaver raised her when her egg rolled out of the nest and into the dam the beaver had built. With the addition of Santat, the team was complete.

Winkler says anyone can draw using Dan’s ideas. From Dan he learned, “there is not one way to do things.”

“From Lin, I learned the rules and the process of writing.”

Working with Santat and Winkler, Oliver says, “Having done books with many authors, it’s a very rare case when you work with pleasant people that you absolutely love. It doesn’t feel like work. It’s just a fun experience.”

Santat adds, “I discovered there is more in me than I ever thought because I’m in an environment that is positive, trusting, and open to the creative process. I’m having the time of my life.”

Until he felt compelled to try something new, which was daunting because of his dyslexia, Henry Winkler had no awareness of his dream of being a writer. With a supportive team he found not only could he become a writer, he, with Oliver and Santat, could become a prolific writer.

“Write from your own voice,” Winkler says, “It’s never too late to follow your dreams.”