Anne Russell and Rosemary Emery from Off the Page, designers of fun, educational e books tailored to older emergent reader explained to members that it all started when they discovered there were literally no books available for teenagers with reading difficulties, so they set about doing something about it. They have now written three series and are selling their motivating and inspiring books worldwide.Off The Page creates easy to read, high interest ebooks for low level readers in New Zealand and around the world. "Our books are suited to readers with any reading disability, struggling readers or adults learning to read. You won’t find children’s books here as our books are created for teens and young adults on subjects they enjoy."
There are three levels of ebooks to cater for different reading abilities. Each ebook level uses a core base of high frequency words and then a grammatical framework based on the developmental literacy level. The number of pages ranges from 9 – 18, and the number of running words ranges from 50 – 225 depending on the level. Photos are used to create a more age appropriate appeal to the reader.
“As a teacher in charge of a special needs unit for 13 - 21 year old boys, I was really impressed to see reading material on high interest topics. These ebooks have been written with our students’ literacy needs in mind using photos that they, as teenagers, can relate to.”
Sue Osborne, Head of Special Needs Unit