The Bookshelf: How A One-Legged Goose Teaches Kids Inclusion

A one-legged goose might not be the hero you’d expect… but maybe that’s exactly the point.

This episode is part of something new I’m trying this season.
As someone who’s dyslexic and has never really connected with traditional reading, I wanted to find a different way to explore books. So I’m inviting authors, parents and professionals to come on and share stories in a way that feels more accessible, especially for those of us who don’t see ourselves as “readers.”

In this episode, I’m joined by author Ryan Ritter, who shares the story behind his children’s book Frederick the One-Legged Goose, and how it all started with one little boy going through cancer treatment.

What began as a way to help a single child understand difference, change, and uncertainty quickly grew into something much bigger.

We talk about:

•  Why representation and disability awareness matter from a young age 
•  How stories can shape empathy, acceptance, and belonging 
•  The power of seeing difference as a strength, not something to fix 
•  Why this book isn’t just for children with disabilities… but for every child 

If we want children to grow into adults who accept difference…
 we have to start with the stories we give them.

🔗 Links & Resources

•  Find Frederick the One-Legged Goose on Amazon and Waterstones
•  Follow Ryan on Instagram: @RyanThe_Author_ 
•  Keep an eye out for the next book: Frederick’s Hop

Transcript

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Welcome And A New Segment

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi, and welcome back to the Untypical Parent Podcast. Got something for you today. A one-legged goose, it probably isn't the hero that most people would expect to think of when reading a book. But maybe that's exactly why it matters. I have got with me today Ryan Ritter, a author of Frederick the One-Legged Goose. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Thank you for having me. I am honoured to be on your show.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Well, there's a little bit of a story behind this because you have kicked something off on the Untypical Parent Podcast that people might not know about. So Ryan reached out to me about his book and asked if he could come onto the podcast. And actually, what it did for me was trigger what I am now doing as a trial for this season. And it is to invite authors or people that have read books that they would like to share with the community of the Untypical Parent Podcast. And the way the one reason I love this so much is because I am dyslexic. I don't read very often, I often listen to audiobooks. I often feel I don't know about books because I'm not actually in that world. I don't immerse myself in books. So I very rarely find out about books. So we decided when Ryan sent me a message, I said to Ryan, I've had an idea. Which most people that I work with, Ryan, go, oh God, she's off.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Idea? I love ideas. Lay it on me.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah, and that's exactly what Ryan said. So we had met up and we decided this was what we were going to do. So Ryan is kicking this off in style with Frederick the One-Legged Goose. Now,

Why Ryan Wrote Frederick

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Ryan, tell us a bit about why you wrote the book. Why did you write it?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

So I wrote Frederick the One-Legged Goose. It's kind of a two-part story. I'll make it kind of quick. When I lived in an old state I used to live in, I lived in the United States. And one of the states I used to live in was a boy. He was about three years old and he was battling cancer. Thank God he beat cancer. Very glad that. But during the process of him going through treatments, he was losing his hair and he was starting to move slower than his peers. And I could tell he had a lot of emotions, a lot of uncertainties about not looking like his friends, not moving like his friends. And I wanted to give him like a resource to help him with that. And I looked around, I couldn't find anything, so I said to myself, I will make a resource. I will write him something. Now I was fast forward to the part where I thought about Frederick. I was walking down the nature trail, and as I was walking, I looked over and saw in a field a one-legged goose eating grass with his family, or probably eating bugs in the grass, but none to say, none the least, hanging out with his family. And I said, that right there is the perfect mascot for what I want to create. Right there, the name Frederick popped in my head, and the name of all his friends, Anne Fran Stan, Little Maurice, all these characters popped in my head. I said, this is the perfect mascot, perfect story for to help this child. Now, during the process of writing the book, I started doing more research into different uh just different things, a lot about disability awareness, because it is a book about disability awareness. And I realized there's a lot of kids out there from different sides of the world that don't have the kind of resources they need to feel like they can be accepted, to know that everything's gonna be okay, to know that even if you look different and move different, you can still succeed in life and be accepted in a part of a community. So I started kind of writing the book for all kids instead of just one single child.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah. And what I love is the fact that, you know, sometimes things just happen for a reason, don't they? And, you know, walking home after you see this one-legged goose. I mean, I've never seen a one-legged goose. So the fact that you saw that and it tied in with what you were thinking about at the time, I sometimes you think it was just meant to be.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

I feel like it was. I've gotten so much great feedback on the book. I've had people in the in the community tell me that they wish they had this book when they were kids.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

I told that on a podcast the other day, and I that made me so happy that uh so many people are enjoying the book and saying that something they wish they had when they were younger. And that that's beautiful. It's magical.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

So books have always been really important to you, Ryan. Is that why you thought that kind of your immediate response was to I'm gonna write a book for him?

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Not necessarily, actually. I've never really been big into books until a couple years ago. I started reading more. Before that, I wasn't big on reading. Um, I always loved rhyming, though. Rhyming was something I've always enjoyed since I was younger. Just the the different types of rhymes, and I started kind of working on writing some stuff here and there throughout the past couple years. Next thing I know, I'm writing a kid's book. I started using the skills I have of rhyming for something good. And I was like, ah, this is this is it sounds so good.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah. And before you kind of came across this young lad that had cancer, this young boy, was disability kind of on your radar? Is it something that's kind of touched your life generally, or is this kind of your first experience of it really?

SPEAKER_01 5:23

This is really my first experience. Yeah, I've known people before who've had different physical, mental disabilities. And of course, it's been in my life before here and there, but never a big um section of my world until now. And I'm loving being in this community because there's so many great people in it, and I feel like I'm helping, and I really enjoy that.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Yeah, that's amazing. And I know, Ryan, you've got your book with you, and you are gonna possibly read us a couple of pages just so people got a bit of a sense of the book.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yeah, I

A Read-Aloud And The Art

SPEAKER_01 5:58

would love to read a couple pages. I don't want to spoil too much.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

No, don't give it away. They've got to buy it.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

I'll start with the very first page. Frederick was a goose who was friends with a moose, a few other geese. Their names are Anne, Fran Stan, and Little Maurice. Little Maurice and Moose, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Who's who's Maurice? The the moose.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

The moose is little Maurice.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

So the names are Anne, France, Dan, and Little Maurice. Frederick was a little bit different than his friends, for he didn't have all of his feet. He hatched out he hatched out excuse me. He hatched out his egg with only one leg, but his friends still thought he was sweet.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Love it. And the picture again, people that are on audio, the picture is of eggs, and there's this one little leg poking out of an egg. The the drawings are lovely.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Yeah, I I love this art artist I've worked with. You know, like here's another picture that I love a lot. This is an amazing picture he drew of Frederick playing with ball. Just the detail in it, I I adore. And I found him actually on Piver. Um, here is his name, Adele Hemulane. Brilliant. I just got done talking to him actually about artwork for the second Frederick book.

The Sequel Frederick’s Hop

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Go on, tell us a bit about the second Frederick book, then, Ryan.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Oh, in this in this book, we just learned about Frederick and his friends and show Frederick persevering through challenges. And the next Frederick book is called Frederick's Hop. And in that book, we see Frederick moving a little bit slower than his friends because you know he has one leg, he has to rest a little bit, he gets more tired, and his friends don't really notice. So they keep going. Frederick being a little slower has the ability to notice more things. It's kind of like his superpower in a way. He can notice so he notices some sticky mug his friends are about to step in. He tries to warn them, but he's too far away, so they can't hear him. So they get stuck in some mud, and he comes over and saves them by swinging a branch over to them to pull them out one by one.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Love that. So just that it we all move at different speeds, and actually moving at a different speed gives you just maybe a little bit of a different perspective.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Exactly. Yes, ma'am. It's his own superpower.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Love it. Love it. So you're in the middle of writing that at the moment, are you?

SPEAKER_01 8:32

I actually just finished writing it and just got the final artwork back. Um, I need to put it all together. Um, that's a process on its own.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yeah, I bet, I bet.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Updating embedding, all that. It's uh again, embeds the fonts, it's a whole process to self-publish, but yeah. Still a fun process either way.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yeah.

Who The Book Is For

SPEAKER_00 8:51

And where do you kind of see your book? Who do you kind of see your book being for, Ryan? Do you think it's just for people with disabilities or do you think actually it's for everybody?

SPEAKER_01 9:00

I would say everybody. The way I wrote this book specifically was to not just encourage kids with disabilities to understand that they can still succeed, that they can still be accepted, you know, inclusion. It's not written just for that, it's also written for kids who don't have disabilities. They can one with a story, and it's a great story, great character. Two, they can learn a little bit about disability awareness. That's something that's not taught enough in schools, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

A lot of kids grow up not knowing the challenges or knowing enough about disability awareness, and this at least gives them an insight into that world. And it is a wonderful insight that is colorful, has coloring book pages in the back, too, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

I don't think I showed you that last time we talked.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah, cut and color so they can do bits in it and they can color it.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

And just it's a very colorful, very lovely story. So I think any kid would enjoy, and I think every kid should really have. Like I say, it teaches so many wonderful things, it teaches perseverance, it teaches inclusion, acceptance, self-acceptance. It's the amount of things it teaches, the list can go on.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah. And what's so good, isn't it, is getting the kids at that age because then they grow up to be adults. And as adults, they then it's just accepted as a way of life. You know, this is just there is difference in the world, and that is okay. Um, and when we can get them young, it makes such a difference to them when they become adults, then.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

I completely agree. And in order for them to learn, you gotta make it fun. That's why I added the colouring book pages, that's why it's super colorful. It's a fun book. So get them all young, let them have some fun, and they might learn something that they could use the rest of their lives.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yes, I love this.

Where To Buy And Follow

SPEAKER_00 10:52

What we're gonna do is make sure that in the show notes we're gonna put all Ryan's contact details. Uh, you can also get yourself a copy of the book if you would like it on Amazon and it is on Waterstones, and I will leave the links for those as well in the show notes if people want to go out and get themselves a copy of Frederick. It looks delightful. It really does. Is there anything you kind of want to let people know about before we go, Ryan? Anything important that I haven't covered that you think actually I just wanted to say?

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Oh, well, I do want to mention my Instagram uh real fast. If anyone wants to follow me, it is at Ryan the underscore author. Uh underscore as a little line. So Ryan Ryan the underscore author. Make sure you follow me on there for news about Frederick, part two, Frederick's the hop. Uh, I will be releasing content about that soon. Uh we're currently doing a book giveaway on that channel that's going to be wrapping up soon. Um, if you do get a copy of Frederick One Legged Goose, let me know on Instagram. And I will love to feature any images that you send me of it on my story. You can send me a picture of your kid coloring. I'll post that. I love seeing kids enjoying my books. I love just hearing about it. Um, and for every parent out there watching, I want to encourage you to teach your child by disability awareness because it's a wonderful thing for them to learn about and the true meaning of self-acceptance.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Amazing. We have actually quite a lot of teachers that listen to the podcast. So it would be really great to see it in schools. And if they wanted to purchase it from their schools, how amazing would that be? But I would definitely I'll put your link as well, your Instagram link in the show comments as well. So if you've missed Ryan and you don't know, can't remember what he said for his what his Instagram is, I will put that in the show link as well. Everywhere that you can contact him, I will put that in there. And I just want to wish you loads and loads of luck, Ryan. Keep in contact. It would be great to see how Frederick does. Um and thanks for the inspiration for the next kind of series of the podcast. And uh, we will, I'm sure, keep in contact.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

We definitely keep in contact. I've enjoyed this. I look forward to talking more in the future.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Take care.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Thank you so well. Bye bye.