Toledo students have the unique privilege of having a book series in their classroom libraries written by their own superintendent.
Toledo School District Superintendent Brennan Bailey is the author of the five-book Henry Hooper series, which follows the titular “first grade detective” as he solves mysteries at his elementary school.
The series, published in 2016 and 2017, is illustrated by Brennan Bailey’s wife, Ashley Bailey.
After Toledo life skills teacher Heidi Bundy read one of the books aloud to her class earlier this year, one of her students, 19-year-old Trista, expressed that she was interested in getting a copy of the book in braille so she could read it on her own.
Toledo High School staff member Tina Murphy heard Trista’s request and went to fellow staff member Juli Ingle, who has 13 years experience as a certified braille transcriber.
With Bailey’s blessing, Ingle began transcribing “Henry Hooper and the Case of the Missing Lunchbox” into braille for Trista.
“It took a few days to get it finished,” Ingle said.
After Ingle finished transcribing Bailey’s book through a braille program, she got back together with Murphy to go through both versions of the book word-by-word to confirm the accuracy of the braille version.
Bailey then signed the braille copy before he, Ingle and Murphy surprised Trista with it on May 19.
“It was a set of dominoes, basically,” Murphy said, “It turned out Trista was the last domino in the line, so it works out, you know, the best for her.”
“It’s pretty interesting,” Trista said of “Henry Hooper and the Case of the Missing Lunchbox.”
“Henry is a pretty interesting character,” Ingle added.
Ingle started out learning to read braille with the Frog and Toad book series and is expanding her library through books transcribed for her by Ingle.
“What we take for granted takes her a long time to figure out, so it’s good for both of us,” Ingle said.
“It was a struggle when we first started,” Trista said, adding that she got frustrated with the learning process.
She stuck with it, though, and was eventually able to start reading braille in the double spaced format that’s standardly used for library books.
Now, she enjoys reading to her dad and stepmom, she said.
“She’s always been a hard worker,” Murphy said of Trista. “Seems always dedicated, when she starts something, to finish it.”
“Even if she has to take a break from it, she always finishes it,” Ingle added.
The books can be found on Amazon.
