Thinking about Braille for World Book Day

Alyssia, Rona and Zenny from the RSBC Youth Forum talked about their love of reading in honour of the upcoming World Book Day. They discuss their favourite genres, books and why they particularly value Braille as a way of accessing literature.

Stay tuned for our Audiobook Club’s episode for even more book chat!

Don’t forget to let us know your thoughts by getting in touch at youth.forum@rsbc.org.uk.

Listen to the episode

Transcript

Juliette Parfitt 0:00
Hi, today I have with me, Zenny, Alyssia and Rona, who are from the Youth Forum, and we’re going to talk a little bit about books and stories and things that they love about reading in honor of award books. So guys, what are what are your favorite books, or your favorite stories? Zen, I’m going to throw it to you first.

Zenny 0:19
Okay, well, I have so many to choose. I don’t have just one favorite book, but I like kind of dystopian novels slash horror novels, but also stuff that’s kind of realistic, I suppose. Like, my top favorite would be, like, The Handmaid’s Tale, maybe, yeah, is or and spectacles, which is more a play, but, like, it’s still pretty good. Yeah.

Juliette Parfitt 0:41
What do you like about dystopia in particular? I just love this. Well, I

Zenny 0:45
don’t, I mean, it’s kind of cynical in a sense, because it’s like it, I think, with especially, like Handmaid’s Tale and like certain other kind of dystopian stories, like, they’re not too like, they’re very like, what’s the word like? They’re very interesting to think about in the world that we live in at the moment, for some of them. And like a lot of dystopian kind of novels have, like, a kind of I just feel like it’s really interesting to address certain things and like, just the context that it kind of incorporates. But as well as being set in the future, if it makes any sense,

Juliette Parfitt 1:22
that’s for sure. Yeah. What about you? Alyssia, have you got a favorite book or play or poem or anything like that?

Alyssia 1:28
Okay, so I am a big Sherlock Holmes fan, so I haven’t actually read the stories in a while. I really need to get on that. But I really like Sherlock Holmes, and I suddenly got very into reading the Grimms stories. Part of that is because I am doing it for like, part of because I do German, but I do, I am currently reading through them in English, and there’s so many of them. And they’re great fun. Well, they are very dark, but they’re also like fun. So yeah, that’s me.

Zenny 1:54
Oh, what book was that? Sorry

Alyssia 1:56
the latter, Grimm’s Fairy Tales. So the fairy tales by thebrothers grimm

Zenny 2:00
I like dark books. I had to check that out

Juliette Parfitt 2:02
I was gonna say we’ve got some, like, dark themes going on here. Do you know what I love? I love a bit of, like, dystopia and spooky stuff. So what about you Ro What sort of books? Well, do you like? Have you got a favorite?

Rona 2:12
Hopefully I can make things a bit happier. From my favorite books are those by Enid Blyton. So the mystery, like Famous Five the school ones like st Claire’s and Mallory towers, I just like, I like the famous fives the best, though, because of the dog. The dog is like, like, almost treated like, as one of the children and things like that. But I quite big into Harry Potter as well. I’ve got all I’ve got five of the books in braille. The Order of the Phoenix is like the biggest one, because it’s in like 16 volumes. I dread to think what the seventh book would be, because it’s like two books. It’s like two parts, isn’t it? So I dread to think how big that one would be, but I’ve also got all of them on the Braille Orbit Reader. Those are my favorite books, and they’re not very dark at all. They’re quite happy. My favorite character is out of the famous fives. Like I said, Is the dog? Nice? What’s the dog called? The dog is Timmy. And my favorite character in the Harry Potter books is Hermione Granger, because she’s book smart and so am I.

Juliette Parfitt 3:32
I mean, she’s the best one. Let’s be honest, they’d all have died if it wasn’t for her. Yes. So what do you what is it specifically that you guys like about reading. Like, what is it that when you think I’m gonna curl up with a book, what is it you’re looking for?

Zenny 3:47
Or like, I like something that kind of is different to like, I like something that will make me think about stuff. But like, I really like Braille books in particular, because I’m able to kind of picture the character and the scene myself, and I’m able to, like, read at my own pace. Like, I feel like audio books are really slow, and you can speed them up, but like, I’m just really fussy about books, so I kind of just, like, I just, like, kind of do my own thing. And like, I really, like, when I’m lying down, I hate wearing headphones and stuff anyway, so like, it’s just to be able to just have the book and just kind of read it. Also, if you fall asleep with a book, like, usually, if you obviously, if you haven’t done too much moving around, like it will stay on the same page. So when you wake up, you haven’t, like, forgotten where you are. That’s true, whereas, like with audio books, like you’ll wake up and it’s all finished, and

Juliette Parfitt 4:35
with a braille book, you know, like, how excited people read, like they might read with their book. Like laying down with their book above their face, they might drop it on their faces, but if you lay down and read Braille, it just stays on your lap, yeah, just stays

Zenny 4:47
on your like, you’re wearing way more chill. Yeah, exactly. And I feel like you get more emotion as well from the Braille books, because, like, there’s, like, certain kind of things that you probably might have made. Asked if it was like being read to you.

Juliette Parfitt 5:03
You can create the sounds and the feel of it for yourself.

Zenny 5:09
Yeah, there’s certain structural and I think this comes from what Alyssia was saying earlier, but also because I was studying English, so I’m kind of, like, really weird, and I pick up on weird things, but like, structurally that aren’t obviously, that aren’t verbalized, that are interesting to pick up, because you like it, kind of, from an analytical point of view, it’s really interesting to kind of observe.

Juliette Parfitt 5:33
Agreed, Ro? What about you? Or do you? I know you’re quite the Braille reader about it. I

Rona 5:38
love Braille because the main reason why I read Braille is because, as you all know, I wake I wake my dad up every day. So I read Braille so that I can keep an eye on the time. Whereas, if I’m listening to an audio book, I get engrossed and I end up falling asleep. Whereas I roughly know that if I read 10 pages of Braille, that’s about 20 minutes. I’ve kind of got a formula for using books to wake people up. Sometimes the turning of the pages can wait wake people up as well, especially in some of my older books, because the pages are falling apart, so I have to be careful, hard, turn them and stuff.

Juliette Parfitt 6:21
And what do you love about, like, reading generally? Well, I

Rona 6:25
just love that. It’s, you know, good way to escape from, you know, world. It’s good. It’s like you you learn from reading. So you learn about things like history or world events and things like that, if you’re reading books and just that, Braille is just better than audiobook, because you fit in more with your peers. For example, I remember at school, I was reading a book called The giraffe, the Peli and me, and there was a boy who was next to me who had the actual book, and we both started laughing because we were both at the same, you know, we’re both laughing at the song. We both started song together. And obviously I wouldn’t have been able to hear the boy singing the song with if I had a pair of headphones in reading the book, but if I was, but because I had the book, I would actually, I was actually able to laugh along with the voicing in the song,

Juliette Parfitt 7:21
that’s nice. It kind of puts you on a similar level to your peers like it. I always feel like Brian is a really good sort of comparison to reading print, you know, as close as you can get to it, yeah. Alyssia, What about you?

Alyssia 7:34
So for me personally, I actually like both, and I use both. I think I’d actually say I use, probably audiobooks a little more just for convenience, but you know, they’re great because you don’t need to carry around, like files. They’re great for if you’re doing housework. So I put on an audiobook while doing the laundry or when traveling while on the train or something. But Braille books, I think, are just really nice because you’ve got something tangible there, and you’ve got that nice feeling of, like, laying in bed with a braille book, you know, on you and turning the pages. And you know, you got that nice feeling. And you know, like the others have said, I like the fact that you can create, like the voices for the characters and how things sound in your own mind, and you also get your own interpretation. And I think actually listening to audiobooks, and also, like reading a book yourself, can be really interesting because different people have and I found this also with like stage recordings, sorry, I’m getting very nerdy, but with stage recordings and like cast recordings, with especially with spoken lines, everyone takes a different interpretation of that line, and it’s really interesting. So I probably would say both. But I think Braille is so important for just learning how to spell. Anyway. You got that aspect, but it is also really nice. I guess, if you want something quite grounding, and if you want to, like, relax in bed with a book and have that feeling like some sighted person was, I just wish Braille books were easier to, like, get hold of and keep in store. Like, I think that’s probably one of the big things why I tend to be more of an audiobook person, because Braille books are just honestly a kind of a pain to store sometimes, unless you have, like, a big room or a big box somewhere,

Juliette Parfitt 9:19
yeah, and they take up a lot of space. I really, really like what you said about it feeling grounding. I totally agree. There’s something really when I started reading braille, like, when I made that transition over from print, I was like, Oh, actually, I really love that I can, like, feel the words under my fingers and it it feels like it pulls me in really close to the story and the characters and like, I used to get that when I read, and I get that in audio books, but it’s really tactile. You’re there like and I think it helps me focus more when I am reading certain kinds of books. So I think you’re right, that idea of it being grounding. You don’t see people talk about that very often. I think weshould talk about that more.

Alyssia 9:58
I think what I also like to do sometimes. Is if I struggle with, like, reading a Braille, because sometimes what happens with me is my brain either gets, like, really stuck on, like, the decoding, or I start like, I yeah, I would start, like, drifting mentally. What I like to do is to have an audio book running while I read in Braille. And then you get the both the best of both worlds, because you get someone reading it to you, so you don’t need to think think about, like, trying to decode every single dot, because I think that’s another challenge of reading braille, is the fact that you have to decode every single dot and but then you still get like, that nice feeling of like, being grounded, and you get to actually feel the words in front of you and hear them. So I feel like that’s also quite a nice way of doing it,

Juliette Parfitt 10:47
multi layered experience. I might try that. I’ve never tried that. That sounds fun. So to wrap up, I’m going to ask you guys quick fire questions. I want you each to recommend a book to anyone that listens to this. So

Rona 11:01
I’m reading Little Women at the moment, a long book, but it’s a nice one. It’s a nice sort of classic story about the four, four girls who dad is in the war, and their mom’s like, looking after them, and they’ve got a servant. And it’s all about how each girl is coping with the situation that they’re all in, and different things that happen to the family at different times.

Juliette Parfitt 11:29
Yeah, thanks, Ro. Alyssia. Have you got one I’ve put I’ve probably put you on the spot, but I’m going with it. So

Alyssia 11:35
I would say, if you’re into something that’s a little more dark and a bit more like, I guess it’s more of a young adult book, but not the noughts and crosses series is amazing. So that’s a good one. It’s basically, if you don’t know what it is, basically it’s kind of like, it’s a book series that is all about racism, and it’s set in a society where there are two types of people, so you’ve got black people, white people. So Noughts and Crosses, white people are noughts black people are crosses. And it’s almost like a reverse, yeah, basically racism. So it’s the noughts that are being, I guess, prejudiced against. And it is really interesting. What I would say, though, is it get, does get very dark from, like, middle of book one onwards, things start getting very dark from there. But if you’re into those kinds of things and you’re like, happy with some darkness, then I would definitely recommend it. It’s fascinating, especially as book three in particular, which is where I am now, is from the perspective. Well, part of it is from the perspective, and it’s written from like, different perspectives as well, but part of it is from the perspective of a girl who is the daughter of a Nought and a Cross so she’s mixed race, but this society is nowhere where it should be in terms of, like, race acceptance, and she has to deal with that, and then also who Her father is. I don’t want to spoil anything, but like and you know how their relationship panned out. So, yeah, it’s an amazing read, definitely worth reading the series. But again, just it is dark,

Zenny 13:19
and then it’s actually so funny, because I genuinely was like, Okay, I’ll just say noughts and crosses that. Sorry. It was so funny. But yeah, I think for me, then I think if you like dystopian stuff like me, then maybe, yeah, I think The Handmaid’s Tale is really good. I think it challenges a lot of like, perceptions. And it is, it’s, it’s based on, like, a future, sort of, I suppose, America, I think, but they call it Gilead, and it’s, it’s all, it sounds kind of weird, but it’s, it’s more it’s to do is to do with like, it’s sort to do with, like the position of women in society, in that society, and like fertility and their role and stuff like that is really interesting.

Juliette Parfitt 14:06
Amazing. Thanks, everyone and Happy World Book Day, yeah,

Everyone 14:11
Happy World Book Day!

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