CELEBRITY author David Walliams shared his passion for storytelling with vision-impaired superfan Lauren Storey, 12, in a new Guide Dogs film released yesterday.
The two book lovers met following Lauren’s popular online review of Walliams’ book Blob for World Book Day last year. This prompted an interview in which Lauren asked the star some burning questions, including what inspired him to write and which of his characters is his favourite.
Lauren Storey from County Durham meets David Walliams
Despite having sight loss, Lauren is a self-professed bookworm thanks to Guide Dogs’ CustomEyes service, which helps children with sight loss read the same books as their friends by producing bespoke large print versions of popular titles. There are over 4,000 published books available to children and young adults, with works ranging from Dr Seuss to The Hunger Games, Harry Potter to Shakespeare and even revision guides and text books.
Lauren Storey from County Durham meets David Walliams
On meeting her favourite writer, Lauren from Crook, County Durham, said: “The Boy in The Dress is one of my favourite books, so it was incredible to meet David and do my first celebrity interview with him. My friends and I can’t wait to read his new book The Ice Monster – I’m so happy CustomEyes is able to let me read the same things as them.”
Each book is tailor-made to suit individual needs including the best font, font size, spacing, paper colour and binding. In Lauren’s case, her books are formatted to have size 36 Arial bold font on white paper.
Lauren’s bookshelf is filled with 40 CustomEyes books and her next reading conquest will see her tearing into a personalised ten volume set of Herman Melville’s literary classic Moby Dick.
Nigel Betts, CustomEyes national development manager at Guide Dogs, said: “Lauren sets a great example of how sight loss doesn’t have to impact a love of reading and it’s brilliant to have talented writers like David Walliams get behind our CustomEyes initiative.”
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