Storytime

BookBairn loves storytime! All cuddled up or stretched across the floor, it makes no odds or ends to her, she loves a story! She has started to crawl and few things motivate her to get moving more than a book on the other side of the room (daddy's laptop and gingerbreadmen aside). And it appears a glossy magazine has the same pull.

'Storytime' Magazine is certainly far superior in quality than many of the magazines you will find in my hands. As sturdy as a book (and no staples), the luxuriously thick pages are a match for the rough handlings of little ones and, unlike most children's (and grown up's) magazines, there are no adverts, instead it's pages are packed full of story content! With around six stories (each several pages long), a dedicated poems and rhymes section, puzzles and games these magazines are more like a monthly anthology of short stories than a traditional magazine.

Each issue is divided into sections: brilliant books (featuring classics such as Pinocchio, 101 Dalmatians, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland); favourite fairy tales (like Thumbelina, Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White); famous fables; storyteller's corner; around the world tales; myths and legends; as well as poems and rhymes, storytime playbox (puzzles and games) and story magic (recommendations and competitions). The content is clearly well-thought-out by the magazines educational consultant who ensures that every inch of content is valuable to young readers. Even the puzzles page reference the stories featured in that issue with design projects, board games, treasure hunts, along with many others. There are also lots of downloads available on the Storytime Magazine website such as character masks for acting out the stories.


Clearly, these magazines are aimed at readers older than BookBairn and I plan on using them at school. The stories will make brilliant shorter texts for teaching and I'm sure the children will love the illustrations and stories as much as I do. Each page is well-laid out and avoids over-filling with text which might be daunting to some readers and the clear and larger than your average paperback text makes it easy to read! None of the stories are too lengthy either making them great for reluctant readers or for kids who are at that tricky stage between feeling 'too grown up' for picture books but not yet ready to independently read chapter books. You can see from the covers in our photos that these magazines are brilliantly illustrated with bright and colourful scenes and charming characters. Each story has a different illustrator and therefore every one is unique but they are mostly bold, bright and colourful befitting the stories and appealing to young readers.

From the issues we have, I particularly enjoyed the introduction to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, so much so, in fact, that I have bought the original Ian Fleming book to read myself (and I hope many kids will be tempted to do the same) and having never read the Velveteen Rabbit I was utterly charmed by this classic story!

I cannot recommend Storytime Magazine highly enough! It is a wonderful treasury for younger readers that will no doubt foster a love of stories in little readers and encourage them to read further.


P.S. BookBairn would also like you to know that Storytime Magazine is great for playing peekaboo!