LEWISTON — Famous children’s author Ben Mikaelsen didn’t have an easy time in school.

The award-winning author of “Touching Spirit Sky” and “Petey,” Mikaelsen used to get Fs on English papers. “I couldn’t spell the word ‘the,’” he told Lewiston Middle School eighth-graders Monday.

Last fall, English teacher Tiffany Jones’ students were so enthralled reading Mikaelsen’s book, “Touching Spirit Sky,” they raised money to bring the Montana author to Maine.

On Monday, Mikaelsen spoke to several classes and the public.

Raised in Bolivia, Mikaelsen came to the United States in the seventh grade. In his Minnesota school, he struggled with the English language and was made fun of because he didn’t understand the culture. He was called “dumb” and got beat up every day, he said.

Writing was an escape. “I could barely read a comic book,” Mikaelsen said. “But I discovered I could put anything I wanted onto a piece of paper. It would never tease me. That white space became my safe place.”

Bullies are not who they appear to be, he said. “Inside, they’re insecure, inadequate, tiny. They have to come in every day and pick on other students trying to make themselves feel bigger.”

Bullying starts with being disrespectful, sarcastic, whispering or texting mean things. Mikaelsen encouraged students not to be like that. “How you act makes you who you are,” he said.

One day in seventh grade he did something to turn his life around. After getting beat up especially hard that day, “I was crying at my locker,” he said. Since trying to be like other students wasn’t working, he decided “why don’t I just be myself? Do the things I want to do.”

He dreamed of becoming someone special. “I knew that would not happen if I just stood there.” Making dreams come true takes work. He was scared, lonely. But, “that day I did something radical.”

After school, he went to the lake near his home and decided to jump in the water, first from 5 feet, then from 10. He kept at it, learning how to dive. Within two years, he was doing 50-foot swan dives.

He pursued other interests, such as flying. He came from a poor family that used food stamps and bought clothing at Salvation Army thrift stores. There was no money for flying lessons.

Mikaelsen earned money to fly by mowing lawns, shoveling snow and delivering newspapers. Then he learned to sky dive.

By the time he graduated from high school, he was cliff diving from 70 feet, had his pilot’s license and won the Minnesota state sky diving championship.

He got into a college where his father worked. On his SAT in the English comprehension portion, “I scored at the fifth-grade level,” he said. The college took him on probation.

In his freshman English class, the professor assigned students to write a short story. Mikaelsen worked for hours doing his best. “I didn’t want anybody to discover I was the dumb student again,” he said.

When the professor gave him his paper back, there was no grade. It was full of red ink correcting Mikaelsen’s many misspellings and punctuation. His professor recommended he work with a tutor to improve his English skills. But he also told Mikaelsen, “’You are a wonderful, wonderful writer.’”

A stunned Mikaelsen responded, “Huh?”

The professor persisted with praise. Out of 300 students, “’your paper was the only one that made me laugh, made me cry. You’re a storyteller,’” the author said.

Mikaelsen worked that year mastering English. After college, he traveled the world, as a pilot, an adventurer and an author. An animal lover, for 26 years Mikaelsen raised and lived with a 750-pound black bear, Buffy, who died three years ago from old age.

He’s had fun, he said.

Mikaelsen challenged Lewiston students.

“Who are you? Not your name, your twitter or Facebook account. That’s not you. What is your unique potential to become something fantastic?” he asked. There’s something awesome waiting for each person, he said, “if you have the guts to go after it.”

Students, including Maddie Regner, 13, did fundraising for months to bring Mikaelsen to Lewiston. They said it was worth it.

“He was great,” Regner said.

Mohamed Mambo, 15, said he wanted to meet the famous author, that he liked the message in his talk and book, “Touching Spirit Bear.” In the novel the main character started out bad, but changed and became a great person.

“Bullying is wrong,” Mambo said. “You shouldn’t be trying to act like you’re somebody else. Just be proud of who you are.”

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