A visually impaired seven-year-old boy is taking on an annual reading challenge for a fifth time.
Thomas Zalba-Smith, from Highams Park, has not let the condition nystagmus stop him from enjoying reading.
He is one of thousands of children across the UK heading to libraries to begin the Summer Reading Challenge.
It allows children to win rewards after reading books and keeping a summer reading log.
Thomas is already raring to go for this year’s challenge, despite already completing it four times.
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Although he reads standard type, he prefers books like the Tom Gates series where text is broken up into small chunks with doodles between.
His mum Helen said: "Tom Gates got him devouring books from beginning to end.
"Since then, he’s been sitting in the garden reading and sitting in his window reading for hours on end.
"It was an overnight transformation from really resenting having to read at all, to wanting to read independently when we started putting these kinds of books in front of him."
The challenge is organised by the Reading Agency in partnership with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), and encourages children with vision impairments to take part using books in large print, audio and braille from RNIB’s online library.
Helen added: "Thomas has always loved the Summer Reading Challenge and he takes mapping his reading and getting his medal very seriously."
Lara Marshall, RNIB’s library engagement manager, added: "I can't wait to see what books Thomas reads over the summer."
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