Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As a librarian, I am running a Readathon event with my school with the aim to raise money for books for children with serious illnesses.  Anyone who has had a long term illness or has had their movements restricted for any length of time will tell you how incredibly boring it can be, as well as frightening.  To provide reading materials to children in such circumstances seems a fantastic way to alleviate that boredom and, hopefully, to distract from that fear, if only for the time that the book is open.

I have set a personal goal to read one or more complete 'things' every day over the summer holiday, and to write a blog about what I have read.  By 'things', I include essays, novellas, plays, short novels, sections of larger works, or anything that I think might be interesting to read and write about.  For an indication of the sort of material that I have already read so far, please visit my blog at:

https://nosymbolswherenoneintended.wordpress.com/

As a lifelong reader, I know that I am a more thoughtful and careful person as a result of the hours that I have spent considering the precarious positions held by many characters, and I am more bold in my convictions from being allowed to confront the iniquities of a villain within the pages of a book.  I am many things that I would not be if I had not had the opportunity to read from a very young age.

Developmentally, reading ability and vocabulary at a young age has been shown to be a better indicator of educational success than social status.  Encouraging children to read can have a massive impact.  

The 170 or so people taking part at my school are raising money independently.  I have also gathered a good number of sponsors for this cause, but wanted to set up this page both in support of my personal reading challenge over the summer holidays, and for anyone else who thinks that this is an incredibly worthwhile aim.

Thanks you so much for reading. 

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