7-year-old Arthur gets book published

Do Animals Stammer? That's what 7-year-old Arthur Minella asked with his new book for young children, which is out now.

Last year we shared news of a writing competition called 'My Twist on a Tale: Represent!'. Set up by Pearson, the competition invited 4- to 19-year-olds from diverse and under-represented groups to send in their work.

Arthur Minella and his mum Emma saw the article and decided to write something. Emma told us, "It was STAMMA's previous campaign 'No Diversity Without Disfluency' about seeing people with a stammer in the media that compelled Arthur to enter the competition".

Wanting to express what it can feel like to stammer, Arthur picked up a pencil and wrote the poem Do Animals Stammer?, with help from his mum, and submitted it. 

Arthur is very proud of his book and writing it became a very important part of his therapy in learning to accept his stammer as part of his identity. 

It didn't win, but believing it had potential, Emma sent it off to publishers to see if they'd be interested and it was picked up by publishing company Olympia. The book was released at the end of October and is available to buy from all major bookshops. Read a review of Do Animals Stammer? by a parent on our volunteer book review team.

Emma said, "Arthur is very proud of his book and writing it became a very important part of his therapy in learning to accept his stammer as part of his identity. Today he loves his stammer and never wants to lose it".

So what's next for Arthur? Emma told us, "As soon as we got the contract for Do Animals Stammer? Arthur was thinking about his next book. He has since written three more stories". When we asked if Arthur would like to be a full-time writer when he grows up, Emma said, "Arthur would like to do lots of things in the future, from being a hydrologist to a farmer. But more than anything he'd like to see himself (as a person with a stammer) represented in lots of different fields".

'Do Animals Stammer?' by Arthur Minella and Emma Morton, published by Olympia Publishers, is out now.

Book cover image courtesy of Olympia Publishers.