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Isabell Niland has been an elementary school teacher for over 15 years. Her first book, entitled "The Essay," is available now. Isabell enjoys writing short stories for her students focusing on challenges they may face in their daily lives. She resides in Western Maryland with her husband and two dachshunds. When she isn't teaching, she enjoys writing, crocheting and spending time with her daughter, son-in-law, and their rescue dog.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
The Essay is a children’s short story written by Isabell Niland and illustrated by Ashley Teets. Benjamin Stafford is a practicing attorney now, and he’s opened his own office complete with a sign created from an antique desk he inherited from his grandmother. It features both his legal name and the nickname he’s been known by for most of his life: Stubs. In fact, most of his friends in college didn’t know him by any other name. He wasn’t always called Stubs, however, he was referred to by an infinitely more hurtful and mean-spirited name, Stubby, as he was growing up. Benjamin had been born with birth defects which left him needing a prosthesis for his left leg and with only partially formed fingers on that hand. In school, the kids taunted him and called him Stubby. They would never choose him for baseball teams and made him feel like an outcast. Fourth grade in Brook Park Elementary School is a special year as each fourth grader was required to participate in an essay contest. Benjamin wanted to make his extra special, and, since the theme for that year was “Something I Learned from Others”, he decided to rummage through the attic of the house his grandmother left him to find his inspiration.
Isabell Niland’s children’s short story, The Essay, is heartwarming, poignant and powerful. I loved the way the author frames Stubs’ story as the recollection of a successful and happy adult, especially those memories about the times he shared with his grandmother in contrast with his difficulties in the schoolyard, and his search for inspiration for the essay. Niland’s tale underscores the challenges faced by children who seem different and the casual, almost unthinking cruelty that they must endure from their peers. And when Benjamin discovers the inspiration he needs for his essay, he learns a deeper and healing truth about himself. Ashley Teets’ pencil drawings are marvelous. They reinforce the historical feel of the attic and its treasures, and work quite well with the plot. The Essay is a feel-good story that will resonate with just about anyone who reads it, as what child, or adult, for that matter, doesn’t feel different or broken or insignificant at some point in their lives. It’s most highly recommended.
