At Storytime, we’re all about bringing joy, so we hope kids will be delighted this month to discover that dinosaurs do still exist. Or at least they do in Storytime Issue 42, which is out now!
Once again it’s bursting with brilliant stories, old and new, and awesome illustrations too. Furthermore, there are activities throughout the magazine, puzzles, a game, a craft and a Book of the Month (win it here!). You can find out more about it and our contributors below.
First of all, we reveal the winner of our 3rd Anniversary Create-a-Creature Art Competition, which we ran in our September 2017 issue. Congratulations to the super-talented Lara McKeating, aged 6, for her imaginative and colourful creation, the Octamerdog. Isn’t it amazing? We hope this is the beginning of a career in illustration for Lara. It was tough coming up with a shortlist as there are so many incredible entries, but we were helped by ace illustrator and judge, Luke Flowers. Our thanks to Luke!
Congratulations to Lara McKeating – our competition winner!
Inside Storytime Issue 42
This month’s issue opens with our cover story – a new tale to stoke the fire of every child’s imagination. Who knows what you might find at the end of your garden? Leo’s Dino is the creation of new writer Emma Sheedy and was illustrated by Karina Lemesheva. We’ve created a dino-tastic teaching resource pack with facts and activities to accompany this story. Our Storytime school subscribers get it free.
Seals are one of the stars of our latest Alphabet Zoo with art by Tim Budgen.
Alphabet Zoo returns with the letter S. We have a stupendous sloth, not-so-smelly skunks, skydiving sugar gliders and swimming seals. Tim Budgen provides the wonderful illustrations and we have an Alphabet Zoo Activity Pack to download for free!
Gaia Bordicchia returns to Storytime with illustrations for our Famous Fable – Little Mouse Makes Friends. It’s a cautionary tale for first-time explorers. This is Gaia’s fourth outing in Storytime. We’ll be interviewing her about her work soon, so do watch this space.
Our Around the World Tale comes all the way from Africa. It tells of a female adventurer who was the first person to bring stories to her people. The beautiful illustrations for How Stories Began are by Francesca de Luca.
This month’s Favourite Fairytale brings you a story you may not know, but is hundreds of years old. Prince Dearborn and Grandfather Knowitall features a fairy godmother, a young man who defies the odds, a greedy king and a grandfather with a magical surprise. It has a fabulous art by Soyun Park.
Sophie Beer’s colourful camel for Storytime Issue 42!
We love a funny poem, so The Camel by Charles Edward Carryl just had to be in Storytime. It should give you a new-found respect for camels. Sophie Beer has done a brilliant job of the illustrations.
We’ve given a little nod to Valentine’s Day with the tragic Greek myth Echo and Narcissus, illustrated by Giada Gatti. Not all stories have happy endings, however this myth’s link to the origin of echoes and the narcissus flower give it a romantic quality that makes it perennially popular.
Finally, from Ireland, we have a famous folktale of fairy mischief – The Legend of Knockgrafton. Alexandra Badiu rose to the challenge of illustrating the difficult lead characters in this story. It’s unusual, but also memorable. Above all, we hope you’ll singalong!
We also hope that inspires you to get hold of a copy or to subscribe to Storytime. Here’s a quote from a new subscribers on Facebook the other day:
“Fantastic magazine… got our first issue on Monday and already read one story and a poem. Kept little man’s attention which means it’s definitely a winner!!!”
As you can imagine, this absolutely made our day. Why not get in touch with us too? We’re also on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Read happily every after!
