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Dyslexia Doesn’t Stop Henry Winkler from Pursuing his Dreams
That is how character Hank Zipzer describes his dyslexia in the book Everybody is Somebody #12 (Here’s Hank), a series written by Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler. We recently spoke with Henry Winkler to discuss the challenges he faced as someone with dyslexia, and how he became a household name despite those challenges.
Henry relayed that his parents could not understand why he struggled so much in school, calling him dummer Hund or “dumb dog” in German. His parents assumed he just wasn’t concentrating enough or was just plain lazy, he said.
“I couldn’t watch TV. When my parents went out on the weekend, I had to study. And at that time, our television was a box with tubes, so if I didn’t turn it off in time, they could touch the top of the television and feel whether it was warm or not,” Henry recalls.
Winkler was several years into his role on Happy Days as Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli before he discovered that
by Joann Williams-Hoxha, Content Manager
his learning disability had a name. His stepson, Jed, received a diagnosis for dyslexia and Henry, aged 31, realized that he had the same thing. While Jed ended up receiving services, Henry said he did not.
“I was angry first because it was just relentless from home and from the teachers, and of course from the students in my private school,” he said. “So when I found out that I had something with a name, I was just beside myself that all that humiliation, all that yelling, all that grounding, was for no reason.”
Jed and his other two children, Zoe and Max, also struggled with dyslexia in school, so Henry understands the difficulties from the perspectives of both a student and the parent of a child with dyslexia. Henry gave five key pieces of advice for a parent who has a child with dyslexia (see sidebar).
From Henry’s perspective, encouragement for a child truly makes all the difference. Now the author of 35 novels and counting, he said it took a lot to convince him that he was even capable of writing a children’s book. Those stinging words, “dumb dog,” still lived in the back of his mind, and, he said, “It takes a jackhammer to pry that thought loose from your brain.”
Fast forward to 2003, when Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Underachiever book series is released and is met with critical acclaim. Cindy Allen-Fuss, who serves as Associate Clinical Director for the Children’s Dyslexia Centers, said Winkler’s books are hugely popular with young readers, including her son who has dyslexia and could easily relate to the characters in the Hank Zipzer series. Hank Zipzer is really Henry Winkler as a child.
“Hank is short for Henry. And Zipzer was a woman who lived on the 4th floor of my apartment building when I was growing up, and I thought it was a zippy name,” Henry explained. He even used his own school teachers as inspiration for the series (for better or worse): Ms. Adolf, his fourth-grade teacher, and Mr. Rock, a high school teacher who told him that if he ever did graduate, he was going to be great.
Other stories by Winkler and Lin Oliver include the Ghost Buddy series, where Henry says the ghost sounds like The Fonz when you read him, and Alien Superstar series, telling the story of Buddy the alien, who crashlands in Hollywood and becomes an actor. Henry’s second book for Alien Superstar, Lights, Camera, Danger!, was just released on October 6.
“Every novel we write is about a kid on the outside looking in, wanting to be on the inside. Just off a beat, just different enough where
“First of all, there is no shame. Second of all, it’s hereditary, you passed it on, so calm down. Third, just see and hear your child. Four: Your child is not trying to be disruptive . . . they are wired differently. And the last thing I would say is to remind your child . . . every day they are brilliant, their thoughts are wonderful, and just because they can’t spell, it means nothing.”
it is embarrassing, or scary, or not inclusive. That’s why I love Hank’s friends, because they’re not dyslexic and they don’t judge him. They just love him,” said Henry.
“Every one of you has greatness inside of you. And your job is to figure out what that is . . . and dig it out and give it to the world.”
The world has given us Henry Winkler: actor, producer, director, author, and perhaps most importantly, an inspiration.
