Archive for May, 2016

When it comes to stories that speak to a child’s imagination, folk tales with fictional shapeshifters – about animals that turn into humans or vice versa – are pretty hard to beat. While adults might be incredulous that people could ever have believed such nonsense, kids are open to the possibility that it might still be true. It’s a gift we sadly lose as we grow up – most of us do, anyway!

In the spirit of keeping the magic alive and preserving precious old beliefs and long-forgotten folk tales, our latest Storytime Issue 21 features a tale from the Orkney Isles called The Selkie Wife.

It’s a variant of one of many selkie tales featuring seals that shapeshift into humans. On this occasion, a fisherman falls in love with a female selkie. In many versions, it’s the other way around, with Orkney women (and indeed women in Shetland, Ireland and the Faroe Islands) falling for brown-eyed selkie men. There’s more on selkie legends here if you’re interested.

Shapeshifting stories appeal to us at Storytime because the characters are often so unexpected, they encourage imaginative thinking (super-important for kids), challenge beliefs and make for a great story. So with a focus on characters who voluntarily shapeshift rather than having been cursed (so many shapeshifting curses), here are five of our favourite fictional shapeshifters…

Five fantastic fictional shapeshifters

1. Selkies – As featured in The Selkie Wife in Storytime Issue 21. The legendary seal folk who are able to shed their long velvety coats and walk on land in human form, you’ll never look at a seal in the same way again. The fabulous illustration on the right is by Evelyne Duverne.

2. Kelpies ‚Äì Another Scottish folklore invention. Kelpies are water spirits who inhabit the lochs of Scotland and appear as beautiful horses, who can shape-shift into humans ‚Äì usually women with long locks entangled with watery weeds. Sometimes kelpies are bad and sometimes they’re helpful. Loch Ness, not satisfied with having a mythical monster, is home to many kelpie folk tales.

3. Odin – The most powerful of the Norse Gods and one of the most accomplished fictional shapeshifters to boot. In Storytime Issue 16’s myth Odin’s Quest, he transforms into a snake and an eagle in order to win the mead of poetry. Norse Gods Loki, Heimdall and Fafnir were pretty handy at shapeshifting too. Like Zeus in Greek mythology, those Norse Gods really knew how to adapt to their circumstances.

4. The Hedley Kow ‚Äì In this funny folk tale from Northumbria and in Storytime Issue 12, an old woman experiences a notorious sprite, which spends most of its time shape-shifting into various objects just to make fun of the locals. In this story, it transforms itself into a pot of gold, a lump of metal and a rock before turning back into a mischievous cow. If you don’t know it, this folk tale is a great lesson in optimism. Ishan Trivedi had fun bringing our mad cow to life.

5. The Ogre in Puss in Boots ‚Äì Shapeshifting proves to be the ogre’s downfall in this classic Italian fairy tale. As he shows off his skills in front of Puss, he’s duped into changing into a mouse. More fool him, clever Puss is quick to leap on the opportunity to remove the opposition. You can read the full illustrated tale in Storytime Issue 14. We always enjoy a story where a show-off is brought down to earth ‚Äì a shapeshifting show-off, even better! The illustration above is by the brilliant Melanie Matthews.

Yes, that’s right, no werewolves or vampires in our list. They get more than enough publicity. Though there aren’t nearly enough fictional shapeshifters who do so of their own volition for my liking. Have I missed your favourite? Let me know via Twitter or Facebook ‚Ä쬆I’m always interested to hear your thoughts. A question worth asking your little ones: if they could shapeshift into any animal, what would they choose?

See you soon!

May is National Share a Story Month, an annual event organised by the good people at the Federation of Children’s Book Groups (FCBG). Of course, at Storytime, it’s always share a story month – it’s one of the reasons we make our magazine. We hope that parents will share our stories with younger children and, as they blossom into brilliant readers, children will then share the same stories with their parents.

The emphasis for us is very much on sharing stories. Of course, we want Storytime to help create generations of confident readers, but we also hope that it will leave children with the warm and happy memories that come from reading together.

There are a few ways, as a parent or teacher, you can go about this – you can read aloud to your child, which is the way most of us deliver stories, or you can try your hand at shared reading.

Shared reading is quite different to the silent and solitary experience of reading a book to yourself and it’s not quite the same as the reader/listener experience of reading aloud to your child. You probably already do shared reading quite naturally, but if you’re unsure, here’s our quick guide to what it is and how to do it.

How to do shared reading

• With shared reading, you’re in it together. Rather than just reading aloud, you experience the story together – that means your child needs to be able to see the pages you’re reading.
• As you read to your child, get them involved from the start. Can they guess what the story might be about from the title? Discuss it before you begin. It doesn’t matter if their predictions are incorrect.
• Follow each word of the story with your finger, so your child can associate the sounds they’re hearing with the letters they see – and your expressions with punctuation. They’ll see and hear clearly how you react to a sentence with a question mark or exclamation mark, for example.
• Repetitive stories, like Henny Penny (Storytime Issue 19) or The House That Jack Built rhyme (Storytime Issue 16) are great for shared reading. The predictability of the text makes it easy for kids to join in, so encourage them to read the repetitive bits out loud with you.
• When you find unfamiliar or hard-to-pronounce words, work out how to sound it out together and ask your child to repeat the word after you to help their pronunciation. Talk about what the word might mean in the context of the sentence or even the whole story. This is an effective way to build vocabulary.
• If you discover a complex idea or sentence in the story, stop and ask your child whether they understand. Can they explain what’s happening?
• Point to the illustrations on each new page and ask your child who the characters are and what they’re up to. You can even ask what happens next before turning a page – this helps build up both anticipation and participation.
• Older children or more confident readers might be able to read the whole story along with you. If so, make sure you choose something interesting, challenging and not too long. Put lots of expression into your reading, so they can model what you’re doing.
• When you’ve finished, ask questions about the characters and what happened to them so you can see how well your child has comprehended the story. Were their predictions for the story based on the title correct?

As you can see, shared reading with children is far more involved than reading aloud, and it’s not right for every story session – particularly if you’re winding down at bedtime, but it’s definitely worth exploring as your child can get so much out of it. They’re far more likely to remember the vocabulary in a story they’ve shared with you and have been ‘involved with’ than one they’ve experienced more passively. This deeper engagement in reading is a real boon for literacy and can, in turn, encourage reading for pleasure.

You don’t have to try all of the ideas listed above in every session, just try one and see how it goes. The key is to gauge how open your child is to a shared reading session and not pick a moment when they’re too tired to engage. Shared reading is just story-telling in a more switched-on way. The Bookstart site has some interesting research on it you want to know more.

If you run a children’s book group, incidentally, and aren’t a member of the FCBG, it’s worth joining as they’re a hugely passionate bunch and there’s very little they don’t know about children’s books or running a successful group.

Good luck and let us know how your shared reading goes this week! Keep sharing those stories.

Until next time!

It seems impossible that another issue of Storytime magazine is out already, yet here it is – Storytime Issue 21 with a bold and fantastic Frog Prince cover by Michelle Ouellette!

This is a landmark issue for us because we’re celebrating publishing 150 stories for kids, delivered through the letterboxes of avid young story lovers in homes and schools in over 30 countries! To all the parents, grandparents, teachers and kind souls who’ve subscribed, we thank you and we salute you. Two years ago, when we were developing Storytime, the idea of celebrating 150 stories was a distant but hopeful dream. We are so delighted and appreciative to still be here, sharing stories for kids we hope you treasure, showcasing the very best illustration talent in the world, proliferating reading for pleasure, and hopefully making many happy memories. This is what it’s all about for us. Thank you.

As we’re celebrating, we thought we’d look back on the many tales and poems we’ve published so far and pick out ten of our favourite stories for kids from 21 issues of Storytime. It wasn’t easy (we’re already feeling guilty about all the wonderful stories and illustrations we haven’t squeezed in), but here they are…

10 Favourite Stories for Kids from Storytime!

Finn MacCool – an awesome Irish legend from Storytime Issue 7

1. Finn MacCool (Storytime Issue 7) – I’m a sucker for laughs and triumphant underdogs, so loved Finn MacCool and his clever wife Oonagh outsmarting the giant Benandonner. And there’s a bit of the Giant’s Causeway legend thrown in too. Tim Paul’s illustrations also captured the spirit of the story perfectly. (Me, the ed!)

2. Monkey Hats (Storytime Issue 13) – For the same reasons as above, I adore Monkey Hats, which sees a troop of monkeys surprise a young hat seller (and the reader) with their guile. Monika Filipina’s illustrations for this are a playful delight. (Me)

3. Stone Soup (Storytime Issue 11) – There are variations of this quietly powerful folk tale all over the world. One man manages to bring a whole community together in the most subtle but effective way. It should be compulsory reading. Look out for the work of Victoria Maderna too! (Me)

4. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Storytime Issue 6) – This is one of my well-loved stories from childhood and it’s also very funny. The illustrations by Oscar Senonez are just incredible. (Leslie, our marketing director.)

5. The Great Gilgamesh (Storytime Issue 11) – This is by the same illustrator as Gawain, but in a different style. It felt quite audacious to take the first great work of fiction and put it in a children’s magazine. My taste in stories has always been very myth and legendy! (Leslie)

6. Brer Rabbit (Storytime Issue 19) – I really like the bonkers upside-down bear – it adds a level of craziness. Plus the story has a real fun factor. (Leslie) I love Maria Karipidou’s colour palette, the simplicity and the composition of the scenes. It’s playful and modern too. (Lu, our art director)

7. Snow White (Storytime Issue 16) – Fairy tales can be the biggest challenge in Storytime, as they are so well known, so it was exciting to see how Flavia Sorrentino gave this classic a modern edge. It feels new, yet recognisable. (Lu)

In Storytime Issue 11, we went to the Animal Fair

8. The Wind and the Sun (Storytime Issue 12) – Aside from the fact that Luke Flowers’ sun rocks, this fable about a boy versus the elements has always stuck with me – especially with the great British weather conditions! (Lu)

9. The Four Dragons (Storytime Issue 10) – It’s a very powerful Chinese myth. I love the idea that you can look at a map and see the story – and imagine the rivers as dragons. Lucye Rioland’s illustrations were also so beautiful and painterly. (Lu)

And last but by no means least…

10. Animal Fair (Storytime Issue 11) – We must have a poem in our top 10, and it was great fun creating two extra verses for this old skipping rhyme. One reader told us: “I’m so happy to have two more verses to sing!” But Tim Budgen’s illustrations really made this special – his sky diving flamingo and lion in hair curlers were perfectly pitched for our young readers. (We all chose this one!)

We also got some feedback from our Storytime readers on their favourite illustrations and stories for kids from our first 21 issues.

Some Storytime Reader Favourites

How Rabbit Got Long Ears (Storytime Issue 3) – “It’s just a nice story. I think the pictures are beautiful – they’re a very nice interpretation of animals. The’ve got patterns in their fur instead of being realistic.” (Millie, aged 8.)

The Wooden Bowl (Storytime Issue 6) – “Oh that’s a lovely illustration, I love that one. The kimonos look really good. They’ve done a lot of detail and it’s really pretty all the way through.” (Rebecca, aged 7.)

The Velveteen Rabbit (Storytime Issue 9) – “The illustrations for this are simply the most adorable thing we’ve ever seen.” (Rob, dad of two.)

Three Billy Goats Gruff (Storytime Issue 10) – “It brought back loads of happy childhood memories reading this.” (Alison, grandmother to five children aged seven and under.)

Beautiful Bambi in Storytime Issue 18

Hans the Rabbit Herder (Storytime Issue 12) – “He laughed out loud at the king kissing the horse. He still asks me to read that story at least once a week.” (Sarah, mum to Alfie, aged 7.)

Odin’s Quest (Storytime Issue 16) – “The kids love myths and the whole shape-changing, snakes and eagles thing was fascinating to them. I loved the colours in the illustrations, so I didn’t mind reading it over and over again.” (Rachel, mum of three.)

Bambi (Storytime Issue 18) – “She wanted the cover on her bedroom wall, but we didn’t want to rip the magazine, so we had to buy an extra copy! It’s in a frame next to her bed.” (Jacqui, mum to Flo, aged 5.)

Are you a Storytime subscriber? Do you agree with our round-up? What have we missed out? We’d love to know what your favourite story has been so far and why. Not because we’re nosy (okay, we’re a little bit nosy), but so we can give you more of what you and your children love. We want to offer stories for kids that engage, inspire and delight! You can let us know via Twitter or Facebook – we always love to hear from you.

And if you’re not a subscriber, do you realise how much story fun you’re missing out on? You should most definitely subscribe today! After all, you wouldn’t want to miss out on the next 150 stories, would you?

Thanks for celebrating with us and for your support. Here’s to hundreds more stories and wonderful illustrations too!

See you soon!

You’re too tired, it was a tough day at work, there’s washing to sort, it’s late, you need to make dinner, you’ve got a headache. Any of this sound familiar? Is it true or are you making excuses because, deep down, you don’t think you have the skills to make your child’s bedtime stories extra-special? In truth, you’re not even sure you know how to read stories.

You’re not alone – far from it – and the good news is that we can help! But before we do so, we need to stress that it’s perfectly normal to lack confidence in reading aloud to your children. It’s not something they teach in ante-natal classes. Also, it’s not something most people have a diploma in and, unless you have a penchant for performing arts, mastering silly voices and maintaining them for a whole book or chapter can be testing for the best of us.

Believe it or not, reading stories aloud to children isn’t a natural born talent. If you’re lucky, you might have warm memories of someone special reading to you as a child. If you’re very lucky, you might be naturally gifted. But for many of us, mastering how to read stories is something that comes with patience, perseverance and a lot of practice. Oh, and you’ll get plenty of the latter (see our thoughts on repetition)!

Here are Storytime magazine’s top tips for how to read stories…

1. Timing is Everything

It’s not that all those excuses about housework, time running out and tiredness aren’t valid – we all experience them. It’s just that if you allow them to, they can permanently get in the way of sharing something special with your child – the magic of reading together. Be strict, give yourself a cut-off point to start reading and make sure you stick to it. Most importantly, don’t do it when your child is too sleepy. Before bedtime is ideal, but there are no rules. If you can fit in a story session elsewhere – at breakfast, before lunch, after school – do it then. Most of all, make a point of being fully in the moment. Don’t allow yourself to feel stressed or preoccupied by anything else. Don’t rush it. This is the key to how to read stories. Everything else can wait.

2. Comfort is King

Kids will read anywhere, but grown-ups deserve a bit of comfort, don’t you think? While we’re big believers in storytelling chairs, any old chair or sofa will do, as long as you’re in a position where you won’t get a dead arm/leg/cricked neck. It’s stating the obvious, but this is supposed to be enjoyable for both of you, and reading perched on a toddler chair or contorted into an uncomfortable position isn’t conducive to happy story times. A word of warning: too much comfort can be a bad thing if you’re tired. This is from someone who has, in the past, fallen asleep mid-sentence.

3. Veto the Voices

Some parents and teachers love acting out the silly voices, some hate it. Kids adore hearing them, but that doesn’t mean they’ll get sick of you reading to them if you don’t partake. They will love the fact that you’re reading to them whatever your approach – you are, after all, taking them to amazing imaginary worlds and introducing them to awesome characters. What’s not to like? So if you can’t do accents and don’t feel like being the wicked witch or the snarling wolf, don’t do it. Maybe make your voice a bit higher or lower for different characters if you can manage it, but otherwise, don’t put pressure on yourself. Just enjoy telling the stories. (By the way, funny voices and accents – if overdone – can be distracting and confusing to some kids.)

4. Stuff Feeling Self-Conscious

Maybe you don’t do the accents or add noisy sound effects or use props when you’re reading because it makes you feel silly? Well, we’re not living in the Victorian age, and if you can’t make a fool of yourself in front of your loved ones, when can you? If feeling self-conscious is the thing preventing you from reading bedtime stories to your child, sit down with them, read and try just one of the three things listed above. Look at the expression of curiosity and joy on your child’s face as you do so, then forget your inhibitions, put your ego aside and let go. Your child won’t judge you. They will treasure it, because they just learnt how entertaining and brilliant you are. All because of a story.

4.5. Don’t Forget to Breathe

Bear with me on this one. I used to have a real problem when reading to my child – I couldn’t stop yawning. I was never bored with the books. It didn’t matter what time of the day it was. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t tired. Then I realised that I was yawning because my brain was literally gasping for air. I was getting so engrossed in reading the story that I was forgetting to breathe – and the yawning, in turn, was making me groggy. I concluded that this was a bad thing and that breathing, in general, is a good idea, so every time I felt a yawn developing, I took a breath. It works – try it. I’ve almost broken the habit, but I highly recommend breathing for continued happy story times!

5. Don’t Make Comparisons

If you’ve seen a professional storyteller, you’ll know that they are all super-human and deserve knighthoods. They carry stories in their heads equivalent to shelf loads of library books, and they’re incredible at sharing those stories. It’s what they do for a living. Likewise, actors and many librarians, who tell stories for the love of it. They are experts in how to read stories and you should absolutely not compare your skills to theirs. It’s fine to pick up some tips or try out some of their ideas, but the reason your child loves you reading to them is because it’s close, intimate, together time with you. You really can’t lose and any reading together is better than no reading at all.

This is how to read stories. There’s no science (unless you count breathing), it’s all sensible, achievable stuff and anyone can do it. But I’ve missed one critical bit of advice: Enjoy It! Even if you initially dread the idea of reading, when you see the look of captivation and enjoyment on the face of the child you’re reading to, you’d have to be a robot not to realise the true value of reading together and reading for pleasure. Or, as we like to put it, reading for joy. So approach reading to children as something to look forward to and enjoy. Your joy will be infectious and that’s truly how to read stories.

Was this helpful? Will you use any of the ideas here? Let me know how it goes on Twitter or Facebook! I’d love to hear from you.

Happy reading all!