Airline Pilot Donates 4,500 Free Books to Island Students

Shashwat Dwivedi
8 hours ago
2 min read

By Shashwat Dwivedi

Published: 15 December 2025 | Updated: 15 December 2025

Rob Johnson launches a major literacy initiative for Isle of Wight schools, gifting thousands of books to Year Two students.

Rob Johnson, an airline pilot and author, has launched a major reading initiative for Isle of Wight schools by donating 4,500 free children’s books. Every child in Year Two on the island will receive three books from his popular Let’s Go See series, which follows the adventures of pilots Ollie and Polly.

Originally from Sussex, Rob Johnson hopes his stories will ignite a love of reading books among the young children. He decided to start the project after seeing a BBC report highlighting that one in three children on the Isle of Wight were below their expected reading age when starting secondary school.

The book donation began at Dover Park Primary School in Ryde, where Rob explained the motivation behind the scheme:

"Twenty-four percent of children nationally do not reach age-related reading levels and here in the Isle of Wight, it's slightly worse, about 33%. To help the schools support the teachers, we are gifting three Let's Go See books to every single child in Year Two."

Jon Kirby, Headteacher at Dover Park Primary, said that the book giveaway created huge excitement among the students. The initiative will benefit around 36 schools across the island.

The Let's Go See series is inspired by Rob Johnson’s own career as an airline pilot and aims to make reading fun while introducing children to the world of aviation. This UK literacy project is part of a growing effort to improve reading standards in primary schools and encourage families to engage with books at home.