AN Ashley schoolgirl with ‘dyslexic tendencies’ has defied odds by reading a mammoth total of 272 books in just six months – an average of one and a half books or 200 pages a day.

On July 1 2103, Faith Jackson, from Hough Green, started a list to track how many books she was reading throughout the summer at the suggestion of mum Laura.

However, the nine-year-old kept going when she returned to school and was ‘amazed and shocked’ when she totted up the tally on December 31.

Mum Laura, who is married to Faith’s dad Paul, said: “We’d have to be blind not to realise that she reads a lot but, as we’ve kept a few different lists, adding up the total was pretty flabbergasting.”

The Mobberley CofE Primary School student hasn’t always been such a prolific reader.

“Until I was in Class 4 I didn’t like reading, it was really hard work, but I always liked to be read to,” she said.

When Faith was seven she tested as having ‘dyslexic tendencies’ and had a reading age far below her true age.

Just two years later and Faith now counts reading as her number one hobby, with The Christmas Mystery, The Hardy Boys and The Secret Island series topping her list of favourite books.

She said: “When I finish a book I usually feel sad, if it’s a series I’m desperate to start the next one, I wish there were more. Also, when I’m reading, and especially when I’ve just finished a book, I wish I could magic myself into the book.”

Laura, who buys many of the books from charity shops and St. Elizabeth Church’s second hand book sale, said she was ‘hugely proud’ of the fact that Faith always finds time to read even though she has many other commitments in and out of school.

“The most amazing thing about her reading is that she has maintained such a high volume of reading over the whole six-month period,” she added.

Faith, whose other hobbies include gymnastics, karate, netball and drumming, has been so inspired by her new-found love for reading that she hopes to become a librarian one day.

But for the time being she has set her sights on a new reading goal.

“I have already started the next list. I want to see how many I can read in a year so will keep counting until July 1 as that’s when I started last year,” she added.