Michael Jacques can’t read or write. But he’s published a new book

Borrowing her brother’s iPad for Netflix purposes, Kaila Jacques did what any older sister would do: She snooped through the device. What she found were voluminous journal entries. “What do you want to do with these notes,” she asked her brother. He answered in a way most illiterate young men would not: “I want to write a book.” It was an interesting proposition, a book authored by a person with autism with an intellectual disability. Where would one even start? How about Chapter 1.

Can’t Read, Can’t Write, Here’s My Book is a chronological autobiography that comes by Michael Jacques, a rare author who cannot read the book he is responsible for. You won’t find the self-published book on the shelves of Indigo, but on display in grocery stores throughout Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. Ask Michael how long it took him to write the book (using speech-to-text technology), and the 28-year-old part-time Sobeys employee will hesitate to reply, as he has trouble with the concept of time. (It took more than five years.) Ask him how much money he’s made from the 18,000 copies sold, and he’ll have no idea, because of his uneasy grasp of how money works.

He does know he donates a portion of the book sales to Special Olympics Canada, an organization he’s involved in as an athlete in basketball and baseball. His accomplishments in sports were unlikely, given he was routinely the last person picked for teams during elementary school. “I didn’t understand the rules,” he says, speaking from small-town Fonthill, Ont., where he lives with his parents. Ostensibly excluded from recess-time sports, he did what any sensible boy would do. “I hung out with the girls.”

Michael’s story is one of perseverance, a message he preaches – since the publication of the book – as a public speaker. “Michael thinks outside the box, and he never gives up,” his father, retired educator Marcel Jacques, says on the phone with his son during the interview. “Teachers, and parents with children like Michael, they need to hear his story, and they need to focus on what child can do well, not what they can’t.”

To get around Michael’s inability to read, his sister came up with the idea to add visuals to the book to give her brother a way to reference specific parts when talking about it with others. “Right away, the book had to be highly visual, as Michael communicates through images and has an amazing memory,” Kaila told The Globe and Mail.

Her idea was to use large illustrations at the beginning of each of the book’s 10 chapters, with smaller icons attached to key passages. “These images help Michael to recall the stories he talks about in the book and act as a guide,” Kaila explained. “I wanted him to have a way to be able to retell his story.”

His story told, Michael is doing what any first-time author would do: He’s writing a second book, this time using contributions from family members, a best friend and others who know him. A different perspective, then. Which, really, is what his story is all about.

Know of an unsung arts and culture hero who deserves wider acclaim? Send suggestions to bwheeler@globeandmail.com.

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