How Tom Gates got a child with vision impairment hooked on the Summer Reading Challenge
Thousands of children across the UK will be heading to their local libraries this summer to take part in the Summer Reading Challenge – the annual readathon organised by The Reading Agency. The challenge allows children to win rewards after reading books and keeping a summer reading log.
In partnership with The Reading Agency, The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is encouraging children with vision impairments to get their reading vibes on this summer and take part in the challenge using books in large print, audio and braille from RNIB’s online library.
Seven-year-old Thomas Zalba-Smith from Highams Park has nystagmus and is registered as sight impaired, but this hasn’t stopped him completing the challenge four times at his local library.
Thomas is raring to go for this year’s Challenge. Although he reads standard type, he prefers books like the Tom Gates series where text is broken up into small chunks with doodles between. This gives his eyes a bit of a rest.
Thomas’s mum Helen says:
“Tom Gates got him devouring books from beginning to end. Since then, he’s been sitting in the garden reading and sitting in his window reading for hours on end.
“It was an overnight transformation from really resenting having to read at all, to wanting to read independently when we started putting these kinds of books in front of him. Now he’s getting into other types of books because he’s realising what he gets out of that experience.
“Thomas has always loved the Summer Reading Challenge and he takes mapping his reading and getting his medal very seriously.
“This will be the first year he will be devouring much longer text-heavy books and be able to really dissect what he’s learning from the story, so it will give us a lot of opportunity to really talk about the books with him.
I think he’s going to really enjoy that.
“He’s already reminding me which Tom Gates books he doesn’t have, but we go into the library and try to be open minded and sometimes he brings books home he had never previously thought about at all. He loves it!
“I feel like the vision impairment was holding him back from loving reading, but now we’ve found a way that enables him to manage it, it really is his thing. It’s his escape which is quite miraculous given that he is a boy who doesn’t normally sit still for more than five minutes. He will literally read books from cover to cover if we let him.”
Lara Marshall, RNIB’s Library Engagement Manager, said:
“The Summer Reading Challenge is a such a positive thing for children with vision impairments and the more people that are aware of it the better. I can’t wait to see what books Thomas reads over the summer.”
Emma Braithwaite, Head of Skills and Engagement at The Reading Agency, said:
“Stories like Thomas’s about how finding the right format transformed him from reluctant reader to book lover reminds us why this partnership matters so much. Every child deserves to discover their love of reading through the Summer Reading Challenge.”
For more information about Summer Reading Challenge events happening in your area, pop into your local library. Find yours via the Summer Reading Challenge website where you can also download resources and activities.
