Hiya, Dapo Adeola here

I'm an illustrator and author working in Children's publishing, I'm mostly known for my work on picture books.

Picture books are awesome, they give a lot of children their first experiences of the joy of reading, introducing them to their first images and stories about the wider world outside of their homes.

A huge part of my career so far has been dedicated to producing books that allow as many children from various backgrounds to see themselves reflected in the wonderful and imaginative stories in the pages within.

But diversity goes beyond who's featured in the books, its also important to make sure that all children are able to have access to and enjoy these words and images.

I hate to think of anybody being excluded. which is why I'm teaming up with the team at Living Paintings, an amazing charity who take Children's picture books and adapt them into tactile, braille and audio experiences for Blind children so they don't miss out on something sighted people may take for granted. Allowing them to not only have access to the story via braille, but also to the artwork, making sure they get much more than just half the story.

What does this mean, I hear you ask?

It means that they create tactile, raised versions of the illustrations, so children can feel every stroke of the original illustration. They add Braille to the book and include an audio guide that not only describes all the illustrations in the original book, but also guides little fingers over the feely pictures so they can 'see' the characters at their fingertips. They make their books available to borrow for free from their online and postal library.

It's incredible. They don't see blindness as a barrier - and it shouldn't be! Nobody should ever be told they can't experience something. They should never be resigned that something is out of their reach.

I've been chatting with the team over at Living Paintings, who want to adapt two books I've illustrated - 'Look Up!' and 'We're Going to Find a Monster' - but we need your help to make this happen!

To get both of these books adapted, it will cost them £7,000. This covers all of the development and production, with 30 copies of each book then available in their free postal library for blind children.

I'm pretty confident we can do this! Please donate whatever you can, and if you cant donate then please share this to others who might be able to, and anything we raise over the target will help them towards the running of their free children's library or the development of more books, so blind children can continue to experience the magic of picture books for free.

To get a feel for what they can do, take a look at these images or check them out on Instagram @livingpaintingscharity. I cant wait to see these books come to life like this and make it into the hands of these children!

Dapo and the LP team.