About me
My name is Slader Merriman, a 1:1 aide in Falmouth, Massachusetts, I graduated from the Riverview School in East Sandwich, Massachusetts as Senior class President in 1996, I’m a 2008 graduate of Cape Cod Community College. In 2008 I was honored by the Project Forward program, a vocational program at Cape Cod Community College where I also graduated in 1998 as Teacher of the year.
My book is all about how it is okay to be Different, and how it should be celebrated more in both schools, and Society. The two dogs in the book were real dogs that were different. Tiny was a dog that my wife, and I owned together, and the Doberman grew up with my wife.
I am so happy to be sharing this story with all of you. As mentioned earlier in the website the two dogs were real dogs that I took as examples of being Different. I have spent the last twelve+ years working in two different school systems that are part of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I’ve been married to my lovely wife Beth for the last almost fourteen years, she and I adopted our nearly thirteen year old son together almost nine plus years ago. My motivation behind this book is all about how growing up I was Different and not felt a sense of “belonging” beside my family which was super supportive.
My name is Slader Merriman. I came up with the idea of my book kind of on a whim. I always struggled to fit in when I was in school. I learned differently than other kids did, and never was unpopular but never was popular either. I kind of was right in the middle of the pack if you will. However, the popular kids would always snarkily say generally behind my back why do you go to the resource room. Nowadays it is probably called the special education room. The not so popular would do the same but they tended to be meaner.
With this children’s book I hope I can help kids such as what I used to be to be seen, and hopefully better understood.
The book took me approximately two years to write between the actual writing of it and being a published book.