About Chris Shaver

I’ve been writing children’s books all my life. My first book was Robin Hood Fights the Monsters. I was 6 when I wrote it. I illustrated it – poorly – even though I could see the pictures clearly in my mind. So right from the start, I knew that I needed a good illustrator to capture my genius. It took me almost 40 years to find Fran Panza…and I’m glad I waited. I didn’t find a good illustrator – I found a great one, who I’m very priveleged to work with!

Memories of Learning to Read - Using Pictures.

I have many specific memories of learning to read. For example, for a long time I hated vowel blends more than anything because they made no sense. They weren’t really “blends,” not the way a consonant blend was. The vowel blend was like a lie! Vowel blends were not logical. You just had to memorize them and the words they lived inside.

My other strong memory of struggle related to all of the pronunciation rules related to the “exceptions.” “The exception proves the rule” was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard. Crazy logic!

Even still, I loved to read. As soon as I was able, I went to the library and took out a pile of chapter books. My first chapter books were about Cave Men. I struggled to read them. But the pictures were great and helped me a lot! On the second batch I switched to Christopher Columbus. I loved him, because he had my first name. (It’s the little things that excite kids, you know.)

At the time, I had a quite limited reading vocabulary. Happily there were illustrations – “pictures”. (It seems to me that there were a lot of books at my reading level that had pictures – unlike today!) I really needed those pictures to figure out the long words in those Columbus books. I used to hide behind the living room couch and try and pronounce the words. I didn’t want anyone to see me struggling to read…or hear me sounding out words.

“Hush Band” and the Illogical English Language

I have one memory of a word that really stumped me.  The word was husband. But I forgot that S could be pronounced as a Z.  Huss-band. It’s a “site word.” So I was stumped and started pronouncing it “hush-band.” I imagined that there was a band of musicians in the background of the illustrations, somewhere. Whenever Christopher Columbus’s mother came into the story she had her “hush-band” with her.

I was proud of my reading abilities and sure I could figure this word out. But there were no pictures to explain what a “hushband” was…and no musicians in the pictures. So I finally asked my mother how to pronounce it. Huzz-band. At 7 years old, I was really annoyed at the English language that day. HOW STUPID! An S is an S. Why not use a Z instead?

Plus I was annoyed at the author. Here I was a struggling reader. The author just had to write Christopher Columbus’s father…not his mother’s husband. For gosh sake, I thought. Say father if you mean father. Well I got over it. But the memory stuck as you can see.

After that, I read dozens of libray books and always looked for books with pictures. They always gave me clues which helped me figure out new words. This turned me into a very good reader. By the end of first grade I had a sixth grade reading level. And I did this by reading picture books almost exclusively. That was my major criteria for picking books out of the library that entire year. After that, I graduated from picture books to a majorlove of comic books. You get the idea, right?

My Career Taught Me How To Combine Pictures with Words

I have two more stories that shaped my desire to write books that make it easy for kids to read.

As an adult, my job has always been to create brochures, websites, packaging, or manuals to help people visualize the benefits of  products and services. While doing this, I get the privelege of watching people read these things and of asking them what they “get” or “don’t get” while reading.

Once, working on a catalog, 100 gave me feedback in in one day – 5 at a time – on what they did or did not understand about a catalog I was creating. During that day, I was astonished at the incredible number of different interpretations and misinterpretations that people could have of the same sentence – even the same word in a sentence.

But then I had a huge awaking. For these same people, comprehension and a shared agreement on meaning skyrocketed when explanatory pictures were present with well-written text.

I saw roughly a 40% comprehension rate present on a “words-only” page. But when a good “picture-text” combination was present, comprehension increased to around 70% and shared understanding (people agreeing on the meaning) was nearly 100%. 

For struggling readers a good picture-text combination produced results that were nothing short of astonishing.

This is a much longer story than I want to go into right now. But I have been told by people with profound reading disabilities (high-functioning executives and Ph.Ds) how much easier it was to read when pictures were present that helped explain and add meaning to the words.

Having learned this lesson, I knew that I had something of real value to offer kids – good readers, struggling readers – each and every one.

The Reason for a FreeBook

If I say our book series helps struggling and reluctant readers get hooked on reading – I know you will be suspicious. Rightfully so. And no…we have no formal peer-reviewed research on how the DaVinchy Chapter Book Series increases reading comprehension levels. We aren’t a major publishing house with enormous resources.

What is going on here is that I’ve combined my nearly 30 years real-world experience with Fran Panza’s illustrative genius to create chapter books that can be easily read and understood by people of all reading levels.

We give away one free book to prove our claim.

Your job is to sit down with your child at the computer, get your child in the mood to have fun…and read the free book. See with your own eyes if this works or not. If it does – hallelujah – you’ve got your child headed in the right direction!

By the way, some of the folks who email me at davinchybooks [at-sign] gmail.com and tell me your detailed observations from watching your child read the books will get the second book free as well.  The only way we can create better and better books is with your help and feedback!