For Parents
This section is for the grown-up. It is about reading, dyslexia, and picking books for a child who finds reading hard.
No cures, no reading levels, no promises about what a book will fix. Just what the evidence actually supports, and what it does not.
Written by Yechiel Kuperman, who has spent forty-nine years with fish and rather less time pretending to be a reading specialist.
Gift guides
Buying a book as a gift? Start here. If you pick one of ours, the humour is dry and clever. Grown-ups laugh too.
Guides for parents
Books for Kids Who Hate Reading: What Actually Helps
What actually helps a child who hates reading — and why the research points at spacing, not special fonts. From a dyslexic author of ten children's books.
Read itDyslexia-Friendly Books: What to Look For
How to judge a book in sixty seconds for a child who finds reading hard: the spacing check, the illustration trap, and what cream paper cannot do.
Read itWhat Is a Dyslexia-Friendly Font?
What makes a font dyslexia-friendly, why spacing beats special letter shapes in the research, and how to judge the type in a children's book fast.
Read itHow to Help a Reluctant Reader (Without Making It Worse)
How to help a reluctant reader aged 7–10 without a nightly battle: choice, ten-minute wins, funny books, comics that count, and what backfires.
Read itSTEM Books for Kids Who Don't Like Science (Yet)
Your child does not hate science — they hate how it arrived. How story-first STEM books smuggle real concepts past 'boring', for readers aged 7–10.
Read itBooks for Kids Who Love Animals (That Get the Animals Right)
Animal books for ages 3–10 that get the biology right, chosen by a marine biologist with 49 years of fish, plus the mistakes to spot on any bookshelf.
Read itWhat to Read After The Rainbow Fish
Loved The Rainbow Fish? The next books by age, from Swimmy to first chapter books, plus the real science of fish scales that children always ask about.
Read itBooks That Teach Kids About Nature (Without Lying to Them)
A 30-second bookshop test for nature books with wrong facts, from a marine biologist, plus nine picture books for ages 3–12 that pass it with ease.
Read itAre Picture Books Still OK for Older Kids?
Picture books at 8, 9 or 10 are not a step backwards. What the research shows, when to worry, and seven picture books written with older readers in mind.
Read itBooks for 8-Year-Olds Who Prefer Facts to Stories
Your 8-year-old reads fact books and refuses novels? That is real reading. Here are the fact books to buy, and the stories that keep the science true.
Read it
Start here
How these books are designed for kids who find reading hard — the font, the line spacing, the paragraph length, and why each one was chosen.
What the research on dyslexia-friendly design actually says — including the parts that do not support the label, which most publishers leave out.
Teaching rather than parenting? The educator hub has the lesson plans, the printables and the classroom tank.