So many good books to read!

Many reviews claim this story turned avid non-readers into just the opposite. I've taken a quick look at the first page and the text seems very friendly. This is another one to add to my growing list.

Story of a real life miracle

I'm on a bit of a roll with new novels. I keep finding stories I want to try and here's the latest. South America. It's an interesting place. There's the Andes Mountains, the Amazon River, the crazy-dense jungle, those weird animals, the sloths, not to mention crunchy nachos, sweet tequila, I could go on and on. But here's a story to stimulate even more talk:

A survival story with a rugby team, a plane crash that kills most of them, an almost impenetrable jungle.

Deltora Quest- For an easy, enjoyable read.

Here's another series I'm intending to try out. 

If you like it, Emily Rodda has written 7 more in the series!

A favorite novel for reluctant readers

Gary Paulsen. He's the real deal. 
 

At the Teach Jake to Read conference I recently attended, teachers were talking enthusiastically about reading to their students. "At first they grumble but then they get right into it," one person said.  "We gather on beanbags and it's a calming, bringing-together time," another said.  Some teachers used Kindles. Some used iPads. Others preferred paper and, if a student missed a class, copied the missed pages, so s/he could catch up.

Here are some titles I'm adding to my pile for most reluctant readers of all.

Hatchet is a tried and true favorite. It's an exciting, believable story of one boy's survival against the elements and it's fairly easy reading. The author lives in the wilds and, in the perfect small details, it shows.

Here's a new one I'm interested in.  It's getting rave reviews and is the first of a trilogy.

This one might be for a younger teen audience but I've seen this series inspire readers who were really switched off. Skulduggery Pleasant is a skeleton detective. 

2 book titles to try with dyslexic teens

Here's 2 titles I'm about to try reading to my class of teens. A wonderfully imaginative teacher told me they worked really well with her class.

They look a bit bleak at first, I agree, but she said they have a triumph-over-adversity tone that worked amazingly well. Check out the old classic detective novel A Time To Kill, and the more recent real life story of a young man's perilous rock climbing adventure, Between A Rock and A Hard Place. 

If you're a parent or interested other, reading out loud to someone who is managing dyslexia is a good thing to do. Reading out loud together is really good too (takes a bit of practice at first but the other person hears your voice, which helps his/her fluency). Reading a book to another person then leaving him/her to carry on reading by themselves is great. Afterwards, watch the movie together, and slam all the inconsistencies!

Bruce Jenner -Dyslexia is gold

Those Kardashians are SO famous.  But in this post it’s not Kim or Chloe or Courtney, or any of the lead players I want to mention, but the quieter, supportive minor-player, Bruce Jenner. 

Not strictly speaking a Kardashian, not a headline-maker either, Bruce Jenner is nevertheless an Olympic medalist.  That’s right, Olympic medalist! In 1976, in Montreal, he took gold in the decathlon.  Maybe you already knew that though.  -But did you know that Bruce has dyslexia?  If you’re thinking how hard dyslexia is to live with, take a look at how he sees it:

‘If I wasn’t dyslexic, I probably wouldn’t have won the Games.  I never would have realized that the way you get ahead in life is through hard work.’

Ozzie Osbourne's Severe Dyslexia

   

Ozzie Osbourne has some bleak things to say about his dyslexia.  But on a lot of levels, and after a notoriously self-destructive start, he has  achieved enormous success both on and off stage.

Ozzie’s had a “one of a kind life,” which nearly killed him, but still, this man is worth a mint,  and, according to the documentary God Bless Ozzie Osbourne, is now, after his many years of notorious hell-raising (and hurting those he loved), sober, living  a happy family life, and working out every day!  Here is Ozzie's take on his severe dyslexia:

 "The only good thing about having dyslexia is that dyslexics are usually very creative people, or so I’ve been told. We think in unusual ways. But it’s a very bad stigma to have, not being able to read like normal people can. To this day I wish I’d had a proper education. I think books are great, I do. To be able to lose yourself in a book is f**king phenomenal. Everyone should be able to do it. But I’ve been able to get through an entire book only a few times in my life. Every blue moon this thing in my head will release, and I’ll try to read as many books as I can, because when it closes up it goes straight back to the way it was, and I end up just sitting there, staring at Chinese.”

Dyslexia - The door to a big life!

Dyslexia makes you work harder, but after all that slog, and because of the stubborn streak it builds in you, it may help you dream and plan bigger.  -So says a bunch of stars who have dealt with dyslexia so successfully that they now make fabulous and famous livings that largely rely on words. 

"Take this obstacle and make it the reason to have a big life," says Orlando Bloom.

''I drove myself into the ground trying to get over dyslexia and when I finished school I had the top grades," says Keira Knightley

Find this very nice article at:    How 5 Actors Deal with Dyslexia

Movie Alert - Go get Percy Jackson!

I’m not exactly renowned for being quick off the mark, so you’ll forgive me, I’m sure, if you knew this decades ago, but…here’s a movie, and a really good one, with a dyslexic hero/main character.  -AND there’s a whole book series, AND it’s family-viewing (though probably not for under 12s), AND …well I can’t think of another AND, but anyway, if you haven’t done so already, you should watch this movie! 

Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief

 

Follow the author, Rick Riordan, on his blog