Why We're Innovating for Challenged Readers

Readeezy was developed by Maria Finaro Cleary. Maria is a school superintendent with a disabled daughter who pretty much stopped reading when she was about 11 years old. In fact, she struggled so much with books that she often said, “Reading makes my brain hurt.”

Readeezy is dedicated to these reluctant and challenged readers, especially those who are teens and young adults. Why? By the time they reach this age, there are few books for them to really enjoy. If they have pictures, they are often too juvenile. If they have age-appropriate stories, the vocabulary and sentence structure is sometimes difficult to understand.

Readeezy is different. It has illustrations, animations, and interactive questions to invite readers to actively participate in the story. Text to speech helps them with words that are difficult to read. And check our research in the NYAPE Journal (p. 45) to see how well it works!

Our plan is to develop an entire library of books like this one. With additional features and assistance, we aim to make Readeezy a fun place to visit. And the more fun it is, the more everyone will read!