Success stories
Helping young carers to discover reading for pleasure
28 Mar 2011
Our Young Readers Programme works with young carers, whose responsibilities often threaten their education, to improve their literacy skills and introduce them to support available at their local library. The programme also works to help young carers discover reading for pleasure as the evidence suggests that the benefits of this could be perfect for their needs.
The story below shows the extent of the impact this work can have on young lives:
One of our project coordinators in Exeter had an initial meeting with the young carers group they were working with to find out what books the children would like to be made available to them at their first official book-gifting event. One young girl, who had been a carer but recently lost her mother, was very interested in a book about a rabbit.
The coordinator called our Young Readers Programme team, asking us for a recommendation and we suggested a very glittery, girly book by Lucy Richards. The little girl was thrilled with this book, and chose it as her first book to take home to keep.
The little girl said to the project coordinator that she was excited to have the rabbit book because she wanted to read it to her pet rabbit, and read it when she couldn’t be with her rabbit. It transpired that when the girl’s mum passed away, the girl went to live with relatives and she wasn’t able to bring her pet with her. The rabbit had gone to live with her mum’s boyfriend, and the little girl can only visit it on occasion.
In some ways the book we gave her has gone beyond the initial benefit of promoting reading for pleasure to this little girl and also given her a means of connecting to her past and memories of life with her mother.
