How Bookshare Transformed a Family’s Learning Journey

Goldie is bright and curious, but dyslexia and being on the autism spectrum made reading feel like climbing a mountain every time she opened a book. Her mom, Faith, started looking for tools to help her daughter thrive academically. During a parent-teacher conference, the school librarian mentioned Bookshare as a resource worth looking into for Goldie. Faith looked into it that night, and everything shifted after that. What had felt like constant classroom struggles became more manageable, and eventually, Goldie and her younger brother Avi found ways to enjoy learning again.

Breaking Down Barriers, Building Up Confidence
The change with Goldie happened faster than Faith expected. Instead of fighting through every page of text, struggling with books like Wonder that the whole class was supposed to read together, she could finally listen to the same stories her classmates were discussing. “She could actually focus on what the book was about instead of just trying to get through it,” Faith says. All that stress that had defined Goldie’s school experience started to fade as she realized she could keep up and genuinely enjoy the stories.

Early Access, Big Results
After seeing what worked for Goldie, Faith set her son, Avi, up with Bookshare early on—before he hit that wall of frustration his sister had faced. The timing made a huge difference.

Avi took to audiobooks immediately. He’d walk around the house with his old MP3 player, listening to everything from the Charlie Thorne series to history books he’d picked. “Being able to go to the library, check out a book, and just dive into a story—that’s something families like ours don’t take for granted,” Faith explains.

The difference became really obvious when they ran into the usual library problems. Popular stuff like Diary of a Wimpy Kid always had these long waitlists in Atlanta. With Bookshare, new releases and the whole series were available right away. Goldie and Avi could follow whatever they wanted without waiting weeks or settling for something else.

Beyond School: A Different Way of Reading
Faith’s kids treat audiobooks like podcasts now—they’ll listen while doing chores, walking around the house, or lying on their beds. Goldie worked through the entire Little House on the Prairie series and found all these companion books about earlier generations that Faith didn’t even know existed. Avi discovered he loves American history through that summer reading challenge, which was unexpected but pretty cool to watch.

Though they still sometimes struggle with the technical side of things—downloading books to different devices can be a pain, and Avi occasionally gets frustrated when the reading speed isn’t quite right for him.

What It Means for Families
Faith’s kids are now independent and enthusiastic about reading. It’s not perfect—some days are still more challenging than others, and some books don’t work as well in audio format. But the difference is night and day from where they started.

“Thanks to Bookshare, my kids have the gift of reading, and the confidence that comes with it” Faith says. This family’s experience shows something important: when you remove the barriers that make learning challenging, you don’t just help kids succeed in school—you help them discover that learning can be enjoyable.

If you want to learn more about how Bookshare supports families like Faith’s, check out www.bookshare.org.