Books For Struggling Readers

About the Program

VR Publishing is partnering with with like minded mentors, such as therapist, teachers, tutors, counselor, and parents. During the pilot program, through the reader's current support system we are offering them free Amazon Kindle copies of End of the Last Great Kingdom (The Brimstone Chronicles, Book 1) by Victor Rose, to age-appropriate readers.

VR Publishing will provide Amazon gift links, for the mentor to handout to the reader, that the mentor feels will benefit most from reading the book. Victor Rose has donated 100 gift links for this trial program, but has promised more if the program is successful. Yes, VR Publishing authors have to buy the gift links from Amazon to give them away. VR Publishing or our authors will not be making a profit on this program; it is the exact opposite. Once given out even though the gift link is assigned to a specific book, the recipient can purchase any Kindle book with it of equal or lesser value. So, even the author that donated the book may never see a royalty from the sale, to offset his donation. That is how committed we and our authors are to this program.

VR Publishing will have no direct contact of any kind with the end readers. VR Publishing will not know who is activating the gift codes, not even their Amazon user name or email address. Our contact will only be through the mentors.

If you would like to considered for the this program please sign up here.

We are accepting monetary donation here.

Why Give Away Free E-Books?

I am Thomson, the owner and operator of VR Publishing, as well as author Victor Rose. Please read below for my justification and details for wanting to offer free books to your clients, students, or child.

As I am sure you have noticed, children today are multi-culture. They are growing up on fast-paced stories of anime, manga, and reality TV, to name a few; fed to them on demand via services like YouTube, and Netflix. Add in the majority of western writers have not adapted and are still writing books that read as they did 30 years ago, it's no wonder the majority of children find reading torture.

On a personal note, I observed my teenage son watching a subtitled anime on Netflix, streaming YouTube on a tablet, and playing a game on his phone all at the same time! No wonder it was near impossible to get him to read a book.

Another issue is the reading books available for adults and teens with lower reading levels, mostly contain childish topics. Just because a person has a 5^th-grade reading level doesn't mean he/she has the intelligence or maturity of an eleven-year-old.

The reason these issues are important to me is all the men in my branch of the Rose family have varying degrees of either dyslexia or autism. Of course, back then, we were labeled as slow and stupid. Now there are treatments and programs but still getting your child to read a book meant for children five to ten years younger than them is a real challenge. Watching them struggle through age appropriate books written at their grade level, only leads to them frustrated and defeated. I went through both of these scenarios trying to help my son improve his reading.

I know from my childhood how insulted I felt when I was forced to read books that I considered to be for babies, especially since my knowledge and academic achievements put me years ahead of my peers. If I am honest, it wasn't until I discovered poorly written (low reading level) stories published in Penthouse Forum novels that I developed an interest in reading. Let’s be clear that is NOT material you want to use as a teaching aid, even if the student is eighteen.

As part of always challenging myself, I took a story I had in head and put it to paper. After four years of hard work, in 2017, I self-published End of the Last Great Kingdom by Victor Rose. The thing is, when I wrote the story, I aspired it to be something my son would want and be able to read. As such, I kept the reading level between 5^th and 7^th grade and made it a fast-paced storyline that is relatable to older teens and young adults. Oh, and to be clear, my writing includes no sexually explicit content. It does include death, torture, slavery, magic, war, and generally the darker side of human nature. Is it balanced with the light as well.

The book has been well received. It was OnlineBookClub.org December 2017 book of the month and has been their book of the day three times. It also as has an impressive 4.4 stars on Amazon and continues to be purchased regularly, which for a self-published book is an accomplishment in itself.

However, despite the positive reviews from "experts," there is one review that I cherish above all others. Once I finally forced my son, Xavier to start reading End of the Last Great Kingdom, yes I had to force him to, he read it cover to cover. Not only that, he read outside of designated reading time, on his own, and finished ahead of schedule. I had never seen him read a book like that before. He could summarize the chapters, knew the characters' names, even pointed out an editing mistake. I asked him to be honest if that was the first book he ever finished. His response, "Yes.” He was eighteen at the time.

Xavier wasn't the only one with mild autism to read it; a local parent purchased a copy for her daughter of twelve, who also never finished a book and had a paltry reading level. Her comment was, her daughter like it, and more importantly, together they completed the book.

We at VR Publishing are giving away free copies of books because we were and still are struggling readers. We know how difficult it is to find the right book that will open the eyes of a dishearten reader. We know what it's like to be forced to read out loud and not know the words on the page; then have our peers laugh at us. We even the despair of knowing you can't go college because you read too slow to make a decent ACT or SAT score. I can go on but I believe I made my point. If helping one person discover there is joy in reading then this program will be a success and worth the cost.