The only treatment for someone having trouble reading is... to read more.

I've had many discussions with special education teachers about what type of books will get learning disabled kids motivated to read. The answer is simple, age appropriate books written for low-level readers.

The problem is there isn't much out there for a sixteen-year-old reading at a third grade level. And if you're a boy, forget about it.

There's a substantial market for books that will hook older kids and adults who read at a third grade level. My question is... Why are US publishing houses ignoring this group?

This morning I was having a discussion about producing a line of Manga for 12-16 year-old reluctant readers, and someone from the UK offered this link to Barrington Stoke - Publishing.

Wow! Kudos to Barrington Stoke who even has a grade level line for adults.

If there is a US publisher out there with similar books, sorry, but you're not doing a good job of letting yourself be known to the people who need you.

For shame US, all I could find were reading suggestions of existing grade 3 books.

None are appealing to my fourteen-year-old dyslexic daughter who in kindergarten sat through Les Miserables, then gave my mother a detailed review including the symbolism used by the company to mark death and ascension to heaven. And by third grade she had a college level vocabulary even if she couldn't read.

My point, there are some smart cookies out there who have problems reading.

While I don't have anything against Ellen Conford's book, The Frog Princess Of Pelham, (suggested reading for low readers, grades 4-12) my daughter would rather die than be caught reading it. Instead, this summer she struggled through Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. It took her three months. She admits skipping over the "hard" parts, but she stuck with it and was able to produce an acceptable essay on the first day of class.

Still, I doubt she would have finished the book if I didn't keep finding the "lost" copy.

If it were up to me, I'd take all the classics and engaging modern stories and make them easily accessible to non- readers. I believe more reluctant teens and adults would start reading, making them better and confident readers.

As a writer with dyslexia, I go out of my way to write simply for an all inclusive audience because I know there are people out there who crave an intelligent story but may not have the resources to absorb complicated prose and lyrical description.

I don't feel like I've dumbed down my writing. I've made it accessible.

If other writers want to create great literary works for heavyweights, that's fine too. My daughter still loves it when I read to her.