A student's book review of 'The Nosy Neighbour'

I am writing on behalf of my student Mr Stephen Glick who has written a book review of ‘The Nosy Neighbour’ by Jennie Cole, which he would like you to read.

Stephen has been a student of mine for several years, and you may be interested to know that he completed the ‘Yes we can read’ reading scheme with me in 2018 at our local library in Cromer.

We continued to meet after the ‘Yes we can read’ course so that I could support Stephen in consolidating and developing his literacy skills. However, the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown regulations meant we had to finish our sessions, and this worried Stephen as he thought he would forget all that he had learnt. So, I was delighted when Stephen’s local Community Resource and Learning Centre (Merchants’ Place, Cromer), agreed to fund me to work with him in February 2023.

It has been great working with Stephen again to improve his literacy skills and confidence, and one of the high points for both of us so far has been the time we have spent together reading ‘The Nosy Neighbour’. We love Walt because he is such an amusing character and quite relatable as we are both in our 60s!

The subsequent review is based upon a recorded discussion that Stephen and I had about ‘The Nosy Neighbour’ which I typed and edited. I then dictated a paragraph to Stephen each week during our session so that he could practise using a dictionary to spell difficult words, revise how to punctuate a sentence and learn how to separate information into paragraphs.

Because Stephen is dyslexic and has moderate learning difficulties, he often gets tired whenever he has to write and spell new words. Consequently, it has taken him several weeks to complete his review. However, he was determined to achieve it, and he has learnt a lot by working out how to write the sentences himself rather than just copying the text of our conversation. He has worked incredibly hard and I am very proud of him.

Now Stephen would like to share his review with as many people as possible and he would be delighted if you could use his review, or part of it, on your website. He also plans to ask Cromer Library if they will consider stocking the ‘Walt’s Adventures’ stories so that older adult learners have something interesting and enjoyable to read.

We would also be grateful if you could pass on our congratulations and thanks to Jennie Cole for writing such an enjoyable series of books.

I have attached a photograph (with Stephen’s permission) of Stephen receiving his ‘Yes we can read’ certificate, scanned copies of Stephen’s original handwritten review, and my typed draft of our recording.

Finally, thank you for the great work which you do to promote adult literacy.

Kind regards from Liz Bale.