Zara Todd writes about the importance of chosing the right book to hook you into reading no matter what your disability might be.
For a long time I didn’t understand why people enjoyed books. Reading did not come easily or naturally to me.
People tried to get me to read a variety of things to unlock the enjoyment of reading, but nothing worked, until one day, when I was nine, I saw this book (a Horrible Histories book) and just thought 'I want to read this' - and I did. I haven’t stopped since.
My own experiences have taught me the importance of choosing the right book. We all look for different things from a book and just because someone else liked a book or enjoyed a book doesn’t mean you or the person you are choosing for will, even if they are the same ability.
Just because a book features someone with a disability - it is not necessarily a good read or a positive representation of disability.
Books are often considered a form of escapism and a means of broadening horizons, so choose books that do just that. For some people a book centred on disability would do just that whether they have a disability or not, but for others it would not.
Books are an amazing aid to understanding the world and the people around us and I have spend a lot of my life wishing the able bodied world around me would read books like Lois Keith’s A Different Life so they could begin to enter the world with a different perspective.
Some of the best books I’ve read have had nothing to do with my disability and that's fine. If you desperately want a book that features disability, some of the best are ones are the those where the character’s disability doesn’t matter to the story - it's just there.
I choose books on recommendation or because something grabs me about the storyline, not whether it tackles disability. Our relationship with a book is personal and changes depending on the individual, that is the important thing to remember.
