Hi, I'm Maeve. I'm 10 years old, and I like swimming and building things. Usually I'm pretty happy, but yesterday everything changed when a doctor told me I have something called dyslexia.

What does that even mean? I have always found school hard, but what if this makes it even harder?

I'm feeling pretty confused and I decide to go outside. On my way, I notice a huge box left over from our new refrigerator.

On the moon it wouldn't matter if I had dyslexia! There would be no school, no reading, and no other people. If I ever did meet an alien, they wouldn't even speak English!

Instantly, I imagine how I could build the cardboard box into a rocket ship that could take me to the moon...

I realize the first thing I am going to need is a box cutter to make windows and doors. My parents keep all their tools in one set of drawers, but I can't understand what all of the labels mean... this is going to take forever!

TO CUT

TO MEASURE

TO PAINT

DRILLS&SAWS

SAFETY

Then, I remember a strategy my teacher at school, Mr. Reid, taught me. He said rhyming words usually end in the same letters. I know how to spell nut, so the word on the first drawer must have the same ending, but with a "ca" sound. Cut! I find the tool inside the drawer.

TO CUT

I cut the top to have a point and add a door at the back. The next thing my rocket needs is paint! My family doesn't have the colours I want, so I decide to walk down the street to the store to go get some.

PAINT - $2 EACH

I see that each paint is 2 dollars, and I would like to get one of each. I want to figure out how much it will cost to make sure I have enough money... but I'm not very good at math!

PAINTS - $2 EACH

Then I remember how my mom taught me to use coins as counters when I was working on my math homework. I place two coins on each paint can, since each paint is $2. I count up the number of coins, and I realize the total cost is $6... I have enough money!

I take my rocket ship outside and decorate it. I decide that the last step is to label it. But apparently dyslexia makes my spelling bad, and I don't want to make a mistake.

Then, I look down and realize I'm standing near a patch of sand. If I label it in the sand, it doesn't matter if I make a mistake!

MAEVE'S ROKET

I label it and draw a symbol of a rocket, too! I love drawing!

MAEVE'S ROKET

I look back at what I made, and it's awesome! Some parts of it were pretty hard to figure out, but I did it!

At first, I wanted to make a spaceship so I could go to the moon and not worry about my dyslexia. I know this spaceship won't actually take me there, but maybe that's okay...

My dyslexia can make things harder than it is for most people, but I can handle it! Maybe I'll be okay to stay on Earth after all. And besides, aliens seem kinda weird anyways!