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by Emma Elliott
Pages: 231
ISBN: 9781905513659
This book is based on 'the Dog and Duck' theory. The duck represents dyslexic thinking and the dog represents the kind of thinker that best suits the education system. This book shares the lessons learnt and wisdom gained from living as a duck in a dog's world.
This is a bird's eye view or should I say a duck's eye view of the world of dyslexia, helping dyslexics, and people wanting to help them, see this view. From up here you will find a fresh outlook that will create clarity and understanding on those aspects of dyslexia that can be hard to define.
Emma has a lifetime's experience of being dyslexic and 13 years experience of working with dyslexic students. Her aim is to help them discover, appreciate and work harmoniously with their flexible minds. This book draws on her personal and professional experience and it has one aim, to get the waddling duck back into the sky.
Regardless of whether you are dyslexic or not, if you felt like a duck waddling along in a race designed for dogs, then this is the book for you.
Reviews:
With Back to the Sky, Emma Elliot has written for us a most wondrous and delightful book. Coming out of her own personal struggles, it is part comic whimsy, part fantasy, part common sense instruction and part Zen meditation. The book draws on a deep reservoir of talent and understanding. Dyslexics and non-dyslexics alike will gain new insight from Emma’s learning to fly.
Thomas G. West, author of In the Mind’s Eye and Thinking Like Einstein
Emma's book is an uplifting message of hope and joy. This has great potential for success for all, whatever the level of his or her reading difficulties. It shows the freedom and power of living life fully in one's own individual way and leaves the reader with a feeling of inspiration, optimism and even: 'I can do it too!'
Susan Arrow, former special needs teacher
This book is an absolute joy - you can read it, learn from it, perform it and celebrate the triumph of finding and loving yourself and others. 'Back to the Sky' was written as a loving encouragement to dyslexic ways of being and thinking. I hope it isn't just offer to readers diagnosed with dyslexia - we all need this book for most of us have felt we didn't fit into conventional modes at some time in our lives. And many more recognise that we look at life from the 'duck’s' prospective whether full-time or part-time.
'Back to the Sky' will inspire all who read it with an open heart and mind to be themselves - to fly free and unfettered through life. It will have universal appeal to all ages - lessons can be learnt from it without study, just by taking from it what each person is ready for. 'Back to the Sky' honours the spirit within and all it is capable of. It has a rhythm, which uplift and transformed the daily grind of problems into adventure.
This is a self-development book which guides by facing reality fair and square, reintroducing us to the inner wisdom with a sense of hope and fun, alongside the practical help which the author used to triumph over her own adversities.
Get a copy for yourself, your children, your parents and your friends - give them all an opportunity to go ‘Back to the Sky’
Christy Casley, Senior Tutor and Accreditation Officer SRMHC
Integrity is a rare jewel in our contemporary world. Surrounded as we are by false claims and misleading information, whether fuelled by commercial, political, and other powerful group pressures, or individual personal prejudice, it is often difficult to see who or where we are and to find a clear way forward through the noise of our daily lives.
Against that background this book shines out like a small diamond on the bed of a muddy pebble-strewn stream. Hopefully, it will light candles and point out a new path for many people, not only
the dyslexics indicated in the title who will at once be fired by its vision. It covers an area that has suffered much misrepresentation - with controversy and ill-informed views getting, perhaps, too much publicity,
Emma’s insight cuts through all the convoluted fluff and nonsense which the poor abused word “dyslexia” has collected on its travels over the last few decades, and goes straight to the heart of the subject. She truly speaks her truth, describing directly from her own experience what it is like to be a person who “sees” in a world where that ability goes unrecognised, undervalued, misunderstood; with only its defects being noticed and condemned.
She does not dwell on the pain and grief of early years of humiliation. On the contrary, she has defused those memories and she affirms with joy the discovery of her true self and her home in the natural world. Her vision is conveyed with simplicity, humour and enthusiasm. It is a vision that other people can follow with equal delight.
Susan Parkinson ARCA, one of the founders of the Arts Dyslexia Trust (ADT), A former teacher at one of the first schools for dyslexics: Brickwall
I have known Emma Elliott since 2001. However, it is recent times, that I have been drawn to Emma Elliott's way of approaching learning - through reading her book: Back to the Sky: How to fly with DYSLEXIA.
You see, although not "technically classified" as a dyslexic, I have challenges with learning which begin to add up and make sense when I read this book. I have trouble connecting one written/spoken sentence with the next, easily. I find it hard to ground my knowledge in practical linear solutions that can be developed. Yet I can on occasion come up with outstanding pieces of original work. All my school years I was thought not very bright or average, yet the few times I received excellent grades people looked and said, you couldn't have done this - who did it for you? You can imagine how I felt - I might as well give up. When I go into a class today using technical language - I flounder and am unable to connect with much of what is going on - most people do not know what to make of me because I'm also able to make very creative comments - so in a dogs world of logical thinkers, I'm laughed at. You see, I never know if I'm intelligent or where to place myself. It seems that dogs do - as it's a dogs way of knowing where to place themselves on a linear scale. I can't. Yet, I do have a thesis nomination that was sent for a competition throughout all the Art colleges in England - you see, I succeeded by using my wings to fly, like a duck. Pure mastery of imagination.
The approach to learning as outlined in Emma Elliott's book - Back to the Sky: How to Fly with DYSLEXIA, is easing my lack of confidence in who I am, and it has helped me to accept that I have a generous helping of imagination which is my gift to others, when I trust myself to use it. And, I am getting the lesson via this book's inspiration, that it's equal to any dog’s linear thinking - just different!
Jeanette Lemberg
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