Easy Reading

[Pinewalker]

My daughter of 25 has moderate learning difficulties. She’s very able socially, has a part time job and has lots of friends.

She wants to read some books that are easy to read, she’s more advanced than wanting picture books, she wants proper chapter books with gripping stories with adult themes but in simple language she can read and understand. Does anyone have any recommendations?

[LDAutie]

Hi Pinewalker, I don’t read books-I have textured/tactile books though and I do have one regular book in iBook form called Catification (by Jackson Galaxy) which is about making your small place bigger for your cat/s (going upwards with things like shelves and trackways on the ceiling-not outwards) it has lots of photos in it but they are needed for examples and this theme of book so it woudnt make her feel bad for looking at it-though she woud find it pointless if she isn’t interested in cats.You can get this in real hardback book form.

Is she interested in health or crime? There are always health or crime related journals.

They can be short,but use lots of big words and you have to just work around the words you don’t understand to get some kind of point out of them,there’s a good one called ‘gray matter’ the title is a lot longer,but being written before the last DSM manual-it uses the old US version of learning disability which many people find offensive so I won’t write it,this journal is about people with LD who have carried out murders and how LD may may have affected them I think.

There are lots of short adult poetry books out there if she is interested in poetry,one of my ex staff has had his poems in quite a few published books.

Woud she be interested in books written about her favourite celebrities,maybe wrote by themselves?

I know Harry Potter does a milder version of their books I don’t know if they are called children’s versions,but I’d ignore that if so my sister (40 yrs old) reads the milder ones and she was always classed as highly gifted in school.

[Pinewalker in reply to LDAutie]

Thanks LDAutie, We have 3 dogs and she's less interested in cats! Sorry!

She has read Miranda Hart's books, both her autobiography and The Girl with the Lost Smile, she likes Miranda Hart!

I just see she's written a book about her dog called Peggy and Me, Tabitha will enjoy that one.

She loves watching Crime and Health on the TV, very easy to follow programmes like 24 hours in A and E and Police Reality shows.

I'll have a look for some easy reading Crime Thrillers, which I think she'll enjoy too.

I've also, over the weekend spoken to a really helpful guy at Croydon Central Library who's recommended some books, which I've ordered from Abe Books and I've joined a website called "lovereading"which has plenty of easy reading books which I've ordered for her. Her birthday is just before Christmas so she's going to be inundated with so many books, of which I hope she'll at least like some.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to my message.

[Freddy44]

There are some great books aimed at young adults that your daughter might like. Enola Holmes is a great new one about Sherlock Holmes sister. Also books by Philip Pullman.

It great that she's keen on reading. It's a whole new world for her!

[Emma_Mencap Community friend]

Hey Pinewalker - that's a very interesting question. As a keen reader myself I'd love to help!

Do you think your daughter would appreciate comics/graphic novels? Some of them can be quite profound and moving, and they have chapters so can be easily broken up. The only problem is some graphic novels are unduly gory/intense. But if this sounds of interest to you, I can have a dig around and find some that might be appropriate?

In fact I got ahead of myself and did some Googling - Blankets by Craig Thompson is apparently a beautiful story but not gory or violent, so maybe something like that could work? EDIT: actually I've fully read the synopsis now, and whilst it's not gory, it does seem a bit dark at the beginning which you might not feel is appropriate. But I would be happy to keep digging if it's of interest.

Thanks!

Emma