Today is World Book Day and schools should have given every pupil a pound;1 voucher that can be exchanged for The Children’s Book of Books, an anthology of good children’s writing by authors including Anne Fine of Mrs Doubtfire and Goggle Eyes fame, and J K Rowling, Harry Potter’s progenitor. They can also use vouchers at participating bookshops as part-payment for other books.
Thanks to the Joseph Clarke school in Waltham Forest, north-east London, and charitable donations, visually impaired pupils from all over the country can trade in their vouchers for the Book of Books in Braille. Joseph Clarke’s reprographics departments produces Braille and large print books for the 115 two to eighteen-year- olds in the school and the 500 pupils the school supports in local mainstream schools.
“It gives us a tremendous fillip to do something on the national scale” said Frank Smith, the headteacher.
* Contact Joseph Clarke school at Vincent Road, Highams Park, London E4 9PP. Tel: 0181 523 4833
