Sharon Thayer of Whitehouse authored "A Tooth Fairy Named Mort." (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

While speaking to groups of children, one of Sharon Thayer’s favorite things to do at the beginning of a presentation is to ask how many of them struggle with reading.

She’ll often notice a few tiny hands hesitantly rise just before she shares her story.

Thayer, 65, of Whitehouse, is an award-winning author of four children’s books. 

In “A Tooth Fairy Named Mort,” she fills in the blanks about where the tooth fairy lives, where she gets her money, why she doesn’t always show up and why she collects old teeth.

Her book “If You Tell Me, I Can Fly!” comes in two different versions for boys and girls and uses flying as a metaphor for success. 

Though Thayer’s creativity and passion helped her create the books, when she was younger there is a great likelihood she wouldn’t have enjoyed reading them.

“As a child I was just about in tears if I’d ever be called on to read in school,” she said. “In college, I hid and did my homework because I didn’t want anybody to know how long it took me to do my homework because I thought I was just stupid.”

Her opinion began to change a few years after college when a test revealed she had dyslexia.

The recognition of Thayer’s learning disability provided her with a new perspective. 

“It is a weakness, but everybody has weaknesses and we all have strengths,” Thayer said. “My strength is creativity, so my strength worked its way to the top. And the disability, who cares?

“You can learn to cope (with) one the best you can and excel where you have strengths,” she added. “I have good editors, a good team, good graphic artists, and they help me make it what it is.”

It gives her joy to see students intrigued by her story and for more of them to be encouraged to raise their hands when she asks once again who struggles with reading.

Learning to work through adversity is how Thayer became an author.

After 9/11, she said an immediate decrease in flights caused her business to tank.

“My business was called the “Can Company,” Thayer said. “It was an inspirational product. ‘If anybody can, I can’ was our motto.

“We sold to conventions all over the country,” she said. “Flying stopped. Big companies I was working with canceled contracts, so I was out of business very quickly.”

She needed to find a way for her and her family to stay afloat.

“One evening my daughter and I had a discussion about Christmas,” Thayer said. “We talked about (how) no matter how bad the economy got, Santa would still come.”

The next morning, Thayer woke up and wrote “The Story of Santa’s Beard.”

Originally typed on green paper and placed in an envelope to look like a letter from Santa, the story follows a growing problem.

As children around the world share, play fair, are truthful and kind, Santa’s beard grows throughout the year to the point where he can no longer make toys.

The elves come up with a solution that results in children who receive the book getting a small snippet of beard tied with red ribbon.

Written when Thayer lived in Greeley, Colorado, she marketed the book at churches, preschools and day care centers. The effort was enough for her to be able to pay bills, provide Christmas gifts for her children and tide her over until she found a new job.

The book is now offered in hardcover and paperback and Thayer said it’s sold more than 40,000 copies.

Now keeping a schedule that includes lots of travel, writing, speaking at schools and volunteering, Thayer hopes the next chapter is the most exciting.

“I want to encourage children to dive into their imagination and creativity,” she said. “I have a lot of messages of ethics and values. 

“I try to promote traditions and customs because in a family, having different traditions and customs is going to make this family stronger,” she added.

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Sharon Thayer is the author of four children’s books that can be purchased online on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com and more. Autographed copies can be ordered at Carousel-Publishing.com. Some books are also carried locally at Barnes & Noble, Target and several local children’s stores. Thayer also provides creativity and goal setting workshops for schoolchildren. To reach her in regard to the workshops, or upcoming book singings, call Carousel Publishing at 903-871-9872 or send an email to Sharon@Carousel-Publishing.com.