DK Braille: Shapes by DK (2016)

Reviewed by Karen Payne

For a choice genre book, I reviewed a book from the fairly limited number of publications available for young children with special needs. I wanted to find books that were written specifically for young children with disabilities – in this instance, blind or visually impaired children. I found the book 'Shapes' and immediately loved the way it reached out to children, primarily through their sense of touch, but also through bold, and intense color visuals. This book is listed on Amazon as a 'best seller' and upon reading it I could immediately see why. It's dense pages, die-cut shapes, embossed images, bold colors, and large rhyming text make 'reading it' possible for a visually impaired learner.

I think the fact that this book was specifically designed for children with visual limitations is what made it so appealing to me. Imagine, for a moment, that you live in a world of virtual darkness, and have only the feel of the page of a book, or the description of a book by others, to understand what a book is. You are reliant on others to read you the text and tell you the story. For those of us who love to read, this scenario is heartbreaking and totally incomprehensible. As a visually impaired learner, your book choices are limited – unless of course, all publications are also printed in braille...