Reading opens up a whole other world
Kara Tointon, 29, is best known for playing Dawn Swann in Eastenders and as Strictly Come Dancing’s 2010 winner. More recently, she has appeared on stage in theatre productions including Relatively Speaking, Absent Friends and Pygmalion. The Quick Reads ambassador was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of seven and often speaks openly about her experience to help others. For World Book Day today, Kara talks about her afternoon spent with an adult literacy class at Morley College.
Finding out I had dyslexia at such a young age – I was seven when I was diagnosed – meant I could find strategies to help me read a lot earlier than others and face it head on. If I hadn’t been diagnosed then I could have become a tearaway and gone off the rails. Instead, my diagnosis enabled me to start reading, which ultimately opened up a whole other world to me – a much brighter one doing something I love.
That’s the really wonderful thing about reading – and why I wanted to be an ambassador for Quick Reads. I wanted to show people who hardly ever pick up a book (and there are millions of them out there) that reading can open doors and lead to new chapters beginning.
Last month I visited a class at Morley College to hand-deliver the latest Quick Reads titles and to see how the books help people get on the ‘reading ladder’. The group was made up of people from all walks of life, but they all had one thing in common – just like me, they’ve struggled with reading. Their stories were so familiar; the feeling of frustration, often having to avoid situations rather than admitting there was a problem. But they were there, in the class, as they are every Tuesday afternoon, facing their issues, word-by-word, page-by-page. I left feeling inspired and safe in the knowledge that the latest Galaxy Quick Reads books will help them, as I know they would have helped me when I started reading more.
- Kara Tointon at Morley College reading group
Just like at Morley College, learners all over the country benefit from the Quick Reads books in a number of different ways. NIACE’s report out today (happy World Book Day everyone) shows that the bite-size books are improving learner’s literacy levels while others grow in confidence and develop their communication skills.
I’ve always been a book lover and just needed some techniques to help me with my reading – since I’ve had them I haven’t stopped. We all know the benefits of reading, but it’s so exciting to think people are continuing to discover this for themselves everyday with the work Quick Reads and NIACE do.
We were so pleased to suggest Morley College for Kara Tointon to visit. She is a fantastic ambassador for Quick Reads as she can emphathise with those who are perhaps not natural readers so benefit from finding books that are accessible but still a satisfying read!