By Melissa Holman-Kursky, M.A., M.Ed, A/ET

No one really hates reading. 

Controversial statement alert! (No, not really.) I can hear thousands of parent and teacher heads shaking, thinking of a child who has this very day announced they hate reading. I was in the classroom for nearly 20 years and I’m a parent; I would never tell you that people don’t think they hate reading. But very few actually do. 

Now, lots of kids and lots of adults do in fact hate decoding, meaning figuring out what the written words on the page or screen say. And that totally makes sense! For some, decoding progresses naturally into reading easily and fluently, which is ultimately what’s necessary to love what most of us think of as “reading.” (More on that in a minute…) 

But for the millions of children and adults for whom that’s not the case, who struggle to decode because of a bunch of different reasons (dyslexia and convergence insufficiency being only two of them), learning to read can be painful. Traumatic, even, depending on what kind of support they get and what messages they receive around their learning. 

If they’re lucky, they have teachers and parents (and therapists and tutors) who help them understand that decoding is only a tiny part of reading. Great readers have to think deeply about the text and examine it from multiple perspectives. They have to empathize with characters and analyze their motivations. None of that has to do with being able to sound out tiny phonemes (word particles) on a page. 

Soapbox aside, one of the most important aspects of literature from an early age is representation, or seeing characters like yourself. This is definitely true for kids who learn differently, and may not have role models whose brains work like theirs readily available in their lives. Additionally, reading about the many types of learners in our world is super important for all kids, not just kids with learning differences. I couldn’t put it better from one of my fourth graders who gasped, upon discovering Percy Jackson, “Melissa! There really are all kinds of ways to be smart!” 

With that, here are some of my favorites for children and young adults – ten picture and chapter books with dyslexic protagonists. If you want to find them all in one place, you can order from my list here (I may receive a small percentage of the sale, depending on the book). 

And if your own child would benefit from a personalized reading list built around only the books they love – and none of the ones they don’t – head here to find out more!