Dyslexic girl wins poetry prize

Brigid Davidson, from Chipping Norton, won first place in the Charley Boorman Poetry Competition, organised by Dyslexia Action as part of Dyslexia Awareness Week.

Children aged four to 14 were asked to write about what reading meant to them, and the first words of the poem had to be, Reading is...

About 200 children submitted entries.

Brigid, 11, a pupil at Sibford School, said: “I found it really difficult to write the poem and didn’t think I stood a chance.

“It was a real shock when the competition people rang to say I’d won. It was really exciting.”

As part of the top three winners’ prizes, adventurer Charley has been filmed reading their poems – the videos can be seen on Dyslexia Action’s website.

Dyslexia Action president Mr Boorman said: “The standard of the entries was excellent and the competition was tough.

“However, being dyslexic, I could really identify with Brigid’s poem.

“She has done exceptionally well and I am sure her family must be very proud of her.”

The competition was run in conjunction with Readathon and supported by Connaught Education and children’s newspaper First News. Competition judge and readathon chairman Brough Girling said: “Judging something like this is terribly difficult, and these poems were no exception.

“However, I was looking in particular for poems where the personality of the writer comes through – where they are writing what they really feel about reading, and not merely what they think a poem about reading should be like.

“Brigid, who obviously finds reading difficult, is my clear winner.”

To see Charley Boorman reading Brigid’s poem, and for more information about dyslexia, visit the website dyslexiaaction.org.uk

Reading is

Reading is a twisting turning path

With lots of obstacles I must pass

Why does it have to be so hard

To even read my birthday card

Words are like leaves on a steady breeze

Scattering all around me

But here comes the deadly mist

That I must read my spelling list