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Roald Dahl Day Is Sept 13! Order Free Accessible Versions of His Hilarious Books Now From AIM-VA

The biggest-ever celebration of Roald Dahl's birthday is coming on Sept. 13. Join with his fans across the globe who will be reading and remembering this beloved author with multimedia fanfare. This year Virginia teachers and librarians can increase the number of struggling readers who know and love Dahl. How? By giving them free accessible books in digital or other formats that support their learning.

These include students have learning disabilities, including dyslexia, that affect reading decoding and rate, vocabulary and/or comprehension. Others have visual or physical impairments that call for alternatives to print. 

Dahl, a British novelist and short story writer was born 100 years ago this month and died in 1990. He was also a poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot. The official website lists him as author of 34 books, along with five scripts and film screenplays. 

AIM-VA Joins The Party

To expand the audience of book readers, eligible students with print disabilities in Virginia can jump into selected stories using accessible digital versions of the Dahl books. These students, who most often relied on adult readers including their parents, have choices now as accessible digital, large print or braille editions are growing the AIM-VA collection.

These book versions were converted for special education students who are eligible for accessible learning materials under a federally funded program in each state. For a variety of reasons traditional books in print were barriers to their learning. Alternative book formats, however, create access to curriculum content. The students also need explicit and proven instruction in how to read. In combination, the learning supports set the students free to read on their own and engage in grade-level learning. Reading independence is worth a party of its own! 

Order Now

AIM-VA is fulfilling orders for converted Roald Dahl books in time for Roald Dahl Day and for reading into the future. Teachers can put in their orders now for the specialized formats that include:

  • Fantastic Mr. Fox PDF: Accessible ready today, and more coming this week
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory PDF: Accessible ready today, and more coming this week
  • George's Marvelous Medicine PDF: Accessible ready today, and more coming this week; and a braille edition is available from DBVI in Richmond
  • The Twits PDF: Accessible, Word, PDF: Fully Accessible and ePub ready today and more coming this week
  • The BFG PDF: Accessible ready today and more coming this week
  • James and the Giant Peach Large Print edition ready today and more coming this week

By next week, all the editions above can be ordered as: Word, PDF: Fully Accessible and ePub!

Counterparts to AIM-VA in other states could make editions like these available to their students. A state listing of contacts follows at the end of this blog. There is never a charge to a school or families for book conversions or for delivery.

Other Roald Dahl Party Resources

  1. Download a Roald Dahl Party Pack for "home, school, or out and about."
  2. Sign Up for the Puffin Virtually Live webcast. Hear a message from the cast of the BFG movie and join with about 5,000 schools to:
    • Watch a performance from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda The Musical.
    • Draw-along with Sir Quentin Blake.
    • Invent "wondercrump" words with the Word Wizards from the Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary.
    • Discover Roald Dahl’s first drafts from the archives.
  1. Pick up writing tips from an audio interview.
  2. View British children visiting the Roald Dahl museum.
  3. Take the super easy Roald Dahl Quiz or ask AIM-VA to convert it to an accessible worksheet for an eligible student. Check out the Super Easy Roald Dahl Quiz Questions and Super Easy Roald Dahl Quiz Answers.
  4. For a greater challenge on the life and books of Roald Dahl, check out the trickier quizzes. AIM-VA can convert these, too, for teachers with accounts.
  5. Read more ideas and resources about celebrating the works of Roald Dahl all year long.

We Are AIM-VA

Accessible educational materials (AEM) help to create access to the curriculum for students with dyslexia, learning disabilities, vision or physical challenges, and others. A federally funded AEM program in every state assures that books in alternative formats are provided free of charge to eligible students with disabilities whose education teams take action. The AEM program operates under a legal exception to federal copyright law. Check out the AIM-VA home page to learn more about eligibility in Virginia. In other states, contact a special education teacher, a school administrator or download a list of AEM state contacts.External Link to AEM state contacts (New Window).

Follow AIM-VA on Facebook External Link to Facebook (New Window), Pinterest External Link to Pinterest (New Window), and Twitter at @AIMVirginia.External Link to @AIMVirginia (New Window) and/or follow me @aimnoncat.External Link to @aimnoncat (New Window). Subscribe to AIM-VA's new monthly newsletter. Sign up here.