Alessandro Reale has always had aspirations to be an author. When he was six years old, he penned his first “book”: a three-page story about a lost Teddy bear.

A year or so later, he wrote a short detective story on the family typewriter for his school’s newsletter, which marked his first “published” work. Although all traces of that story and newsletter are forgotten to time, Alessandro hopes to revisit in the near future.

Over the years, Alessandro continued to compose stories, although this was mainly restricted to school assignments rather than his own creative endeavors. It wasn’t until the summer before his 14th birthday that he began working on his first real book, which he felt was the first big step toward his author career.

Alessandro spent the entire summer with a bad cough that kept him from enjoying the pool and other outdoor activities. Instead of sitting around, re-watching Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time, he instead decided to sit down behind the computer and actually get to work on creating his own story.

Unfortunately, it would be almost 7 years before Alessandro would actually finish this book, thanks to school, anxiety, rewrites, and other obstacles. On August 19th, 2011, Alessandro self-published his first book: the young adult fantasy novel, Dodger’s Doorway.

Alessandro would eventually go back and rewrite Dodger’s Doorway after honing his writing skills. Once he had released the second edition of the book, he worked on completing the sequel, Return to Storyworld, which was published at the end of 2016.

In 2017, Alessandro announced a secret side project that he had been working on: a children’s book. This was unfamiliar territory for him, and he had doubts as to whether he could make it work. Fortunately, when he published his children’s coloring storybook, Only One Samantha, in May of 2017, he received a pleasant surprise at the overwhelming positive reception. Furthermore, Alessandro committed to donating all profits from Only One Samantha sales to charity, primarily the Children’s Literacy Initiative and Kisses for Kyle.

As Alessandro began to take his writing career more seriously, he started to attend local book fairs and festivals to help expand his brand. In the fall of 2018, he attended the Independent Author Book Expo in Roselle, New Jersey, where Only One Samantha won the Best Children’s Book Award.

Over the next couple of years, Alessandro would continue creating children’s books, including From Zero to Hero, We All Make Mistakes, and Jenny and the Thunder-Kicker.

2021 was another hallmark year for Alessandro as he published Anxious Alex and the Worry Monster, a book partially inspired by his own childhood with anxiety. The following year, he released the companion book, Emma and the Storm Cloud, which can be a valuable resource for children with anxiety.

Alessandro currently has many more projects in the pipeline, and he’s hoping to be able to bring them all to life very soon.