We Are Heroes

Story time with Wendy Shearer

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve been collaborating with renowned storyteller, writer and published author Wendy Shearer who has recorded some very special video versions of some of the terrific tales that we featured in the pages of We Are Heroes, with thanks to the British Academy who made this possible.

So please sit back, relax, and enjoy Wendy’s wonderful renditions of King Midas, Town Mouse & Country Mouse, and Odysseus & The Cyclops.

You can watch the videos on our site here, or click on the links above to view the videos full screen on a new page.

We Can Be Heroes – Video

What can you learn about kindness from a lion? Could a mouse show you how to help a friend in need?

Classical stories have a lot to teach us about wellbeing today, from how to help others, to showing kindness even when we are afraid.

This video was part of the British Academy Summer Showcase event for children aged 3-9 & their families.

Join Dr Rachel Bryant Davies and Wendy Shearer and hear tales from the Greek and Roman world, plus learn to make your very own origami lion. You can also download and print off some free resources here.

We Are Heroes – Free Mini Magazine

The Storytime team are extremely proud to be collaborating on a prestigious project with Queen Mary University of London, with the creation of the We Are Heroes mini magazine.

Each edition contains carefully chosen stories that have parallels to experiences of lockdown that children could be facing – such as staying at home or protecting yourself – with additional activities produced in consultation with a children’s mental health expert.

We hope it gives children a creative way of processing the current situation they find themselves in.

There are six editions of We Are Heroes, which are free for anybody to download, read and share.

We Are Heroes is part of an extremely important research project funded by The British Academy that aims to mitigate the educational, social and mental health impacts of Covid-19 on children.

The magazines are part of a research project funded by The British Academy that aims to mitigate the educational, social and mental health impacts of Covid-19 on children.

With that in mind we are asking to parents or teachers to complete an optional survey upon reading one of these magazines, to help inform this valuable research. I do hope that you are happy to do this – the survey has been put together by QMUL and there’s a link to it here.