Project Description
This case study is about the Taylor Family and shares the positive impact Reading Force has had on the relationship between Dad, Michael Taylor and his daughter Katie.
Discover how sharing a book gave this Service Family a common ground and became a catalyst to having good conversations and continuing to build their relationship when Michael was working on Operation Olympics…
Location: Southern England Service: Royal Navy
Michael Taylor and his daughter, Katie, chose to read Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis. Michael was away from home as he was working on Operation Olympics. He and Katie would speak on the phone every night and discuss the last chapter each of them had read. Michael was home every other weekend, when father and daughter worked on the scrapbook together.
Michael has said taking part has had a profound and positive effect on their relationship. When away, he always calls home every night, but said that, before Reading Force, he would just get one word answers in response to his questions about the school day etc. Having the common ground of a book to talk about was a catalyst to having good conversations about the story, the characters, what they felt about the book, and so on. He said, in the past they both would have been reading, but on their own.
They plan to read the same as each other again. Before Reading Force, they had never read books together. Katie wrote in their scrapbook: “Overall we agreed this was one of the best father/daughter experiences we’ve done together.” Michael and Katie won tickets to see Matilda the Musical in London.
