“I went, ‘Oh my goodness.  I have something with a name.’  That was when I first got it.”

Winkler was 31 years old at the time. “I didn’t read a book until I was 31 years old when I was diagnosed with dyslexia. Books terrified me. They made me nervous,” he  said.

After learning his struggles with reading were due to a learning disability, Winkler became angry.

“I got very angry. Because all of the arguments in my house with the short Germans who were my parents were for naught. All of the grounding was for naught.”

But then he used his diagnosis to inspire others, especially children, and he did it by writing a children’s series featuring a boy named Hank, an elementary school student with dyslexia. The series has connected with many as Winkler said he often receives letters from children.