Tuesday, Jun. 09, 2009 The State http://www.thestate.com
For giraffe, boy stuck his neck out
Zoo’s
newborn addition gives dyslexic boy the write stuff
By JOEY HOLLEMAN - jholleman@thestate.com
Eleven-year-old Harrison Pineda
doesn’t like to read, but he loves giraffes.
Because of his severe dyslexia,
Harrison also doesn’t enjoy writing, but he recently wrote a 12-chapter story
about Lewis, the newborn giraffe at Riverbanks Zoo.
Scholars for centuries have taken
stabs at explaining why animals inspire people, but Harrison puts it as
succinctly as anyone.
Harrison
Pineda, 11, suffers from dyslexia, but Riverbanks Zoo’s baby giraffe, named
Lewis, inspired him to write a 12-chapter story.
“I have no idea whatsoever,” the
bubbly youngster said before deciding he likes Lewis because “he’s cute.”
Tutor Gillian Barclay-Smith has
been working one-on-one with Harrison for months, stressing reading and writing
with a purpose. Nothing seemed to get through to Harrison until, during a
home-school student program at Riverbanks, he heard about Lewis’ recent birth.
“For some reason, Lewis did it,”
Barclay-Smith said. “He was the hook. He went places I couldn’t go with
Harrison.”
And Harrison’s story takes Lewis
places the young giraffe likely never will go — to the zoo’s sea lion pool, to
Fort Jackson and high in the air, suspended under a Huey helicopter.
It won’t spoil the suspense to
reveal Lewis always ends up smelling like roses, or that the bad guy ends up
smelling like elephant poop. (What did you expect? It’s written by an
11-year-old boy.)
Harrison and Barclay-Smith worked
through the story for days, with the youngster writing and editing on a
dry-erase board. When Harrison finally was satisfied with a section,
Barclay-Smith would copy the words on paper.
“He so wanted to tell the story of
Lewis that he sweated every word of the story,” Barclay-Smith said.
Harrison has struggled with reading
and writing at various schools. In addition to dyslexia, he has severe vision
problems. Even after corrective surgery at age 4, he has to wear glasses with
thick lenses. Add in attention deficit disorder, and Harrison has plenty of
excuses for his learning difficulties.
His parents, Laurie and Hector
Pineda of West Columbia, have been praying for a breakthrough. Harrison is a
people person. His bright smile and can-do attitude add a spark to his parents’
Wednesday night feed-the-hungry ministry at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. His
parents desperately want him to carry that attitude over to the classroom.
“Reading has always been
challenging for Harrison, but not very rewarding,” Laurie Pineda said. “He’s
determined. If he’s interested in something, he’ll find a way to do it. But
he’d never found anything that interested him enough to make him want to read
and write.”
Barclay-Smith is a former
administrator at Glenforest School planning to start her own small school for
dyslexic children in the fall. She began working one-on-one with Harrison a few
months ago. The zoo trip provided an unexpected, but delightful, breakthrough,
she said.
Satch Krantz, executive director at
Riverbanks, frequently hears stories about animals at the zoo inspiring
creative people.
“There’s just a magical bond
between people and animals,” he said. “I don’t think I’m smart enough to
understand it, but there’s something especially about a baby animal that
stimulates people.”
Harrison certainly was stimulated.
He went from hating to write to looking forward to it for the two weeks he
toiled over his Lewis story.
“He didn’t complain one bit,”
Laurie Pineda said. “Usually it was like pulling teeth. But he came home after
this and said, ‘I’m an author! I’m a writer!’”
Asked how he felt when he finished
his story, Harrison thought for a second and replied, “I felt like I could go
to the moon and back.”
Reach Holleman at (803) 771-8366.
