We love “bedtime story” time in our house, it’s a relaxing end to the busy day. I enjoy listening to the kids read and reading to them. I’m always on the lookout for new stories and books. I encourage the kids to read a range of literature from traditional tales to multicultural legends. When I found out about Storytime magazine and realised that each issue has fairy tales, poems, myths and legends, folk tales, stories from other cultures plus puzzles and activities, I couldn’t wait to try it (Storytime kindly sent us a couple of issues to look through).
Read on to find out all about Storytime magazine plus we have a special reader discount offer as well as a fab competition to win a year’s subscription to Storytime:
What is Storytime Magazine?
Storytime magazine are the only story magazine in the UK. Each month, Storytime magazine is packed with brilliant tales for boys and girls of all ages. Storytime gives you a quality children’s magazine that actually helps to improve literacy with great content you can keep forever. And, unlike most magazines for kids, Storytime has no adverts and no throwaway plastic toys.
- Wonderful stories for kids every month, including fairy tales, myths, fables, stories from different cultures and tales from new authors.
- Specially commissioned, full-colour illustrations.
- Puzzles, activities, games and colouring.
- Printed on quality paper so you can read it again and again.
- Kids’ competitions every month, win books and much more.
- Beautiful tidy files to store them in.
Storytime runs as a social enterprise. Profit is reinvested to support parents in spending more time reading with their children, and to work with schools, councils and other organisations to improve the literacy of families across the UK.
Reading for pleasure is so important it’s now part of the national curriculum, and magazines for kids play an important role in that, as well as books. With Storytime magazine, kids can enjoy an engaging and magical world of stories every month.
Storytime Magazine Review
We were so excited when our sample issues arrived and would love to have a shiny new issue each month to look forward to. The magazine itself is very good quality and we loved the bright cover illustrations. It looked so appealing we couldn’t wait to get reading.
There’s a space for your child to write their name. it’s a small thing but I know my kids love these touches, plus for younger kids it’s good writing practice.
As you can see all issues are packed full of a variety of stories. I want to pass on all of the stories that I loved growing up and more and by reading this magazine each month (and rereading I’m sure!) I feel we could achieve this. We’re currently reading traditional African folktales as Caitlyn is learning about Africa in school. If we had the whole collection of Storytime magazine we could have looked through and picked out the back issues containing African stories, for example issue 4 contains the story of Anansi the Spider.
In each issue there is:
- a poem and rhymes section (from issue 30 each edition features two poems both the regular Alphabet Zoo poem plus one other rhyme or poem to enjoy, such as Block City by Robert Louis Stevenson.
- a storyteller’s section
- favourite fairy tales
- around the world tales
- Up to issue 29 there was a “Brilliant Books” section which celebrated literary classics, such as Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, this has now been replaced with new “Tales from Today”…
and lots more.
At bedtime, Isabelle and I settled down to read Storytime magazine.
Of course we will always continue to read books too. When the kids buy a comic they’re always excited to read it come bedtime but often there aren’t many stories to be found inside (this is frustrating when you buy a comic for travels etc). They also get spoiled once the kids rip the unnecessary plastic toy off the front cover and are full of adverts. Therefore it was a treat to really read a magazine with Isabelle. We will definitely save future issues of Storytime magazine for our next travels as it will save packing lots of heavier books.
After we’d finished reading, Isabelle wanted to look through Storyime on her own. At five, she is an emerging reader so appreciated the beautiful illustrations and enjoyed the spot it puzzles. It will be lovely to see her reading skills develop and eventually she will take an issue and read it all herself. Caitlyn, has enjoyed reading these issues quietly during after school down time.
Reading for pleasure is so important and we don’t just read for reading’s sake. Reading encourages empathy and imagination.
It’s also relaxing and as part of a regular nighttime ritual helps you sleep!
Storytime magazine isn’t just for bedtime but that’s our guaranteed family reading time of the day. As well as families, Storytime magazine is available for schools too. You can also order back issues online and a magazine Filing Box to keep your collection tidy in the Storytime Magazine shop.
Reader Special Offer
Readers can get a year’s subscription (12 issues) to Storytime Magazine for just £30.99 a year (that’s a discount of 35%) with our special offer by using the code NINE.
Each issue arrives in a special envelope for your child to open, gives access to free downloadable activities and is delivered for FREE.
Win a Year’s Subscription to Storytime magazine
We also have a fabulous competition for one lucky reader to win a year’s subscription to Storytime magazine.
Just enter the easy Rafflecopter below- good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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We were sent copies of Storytime Magazine for purposes of this review.
Many thanks to the following Competition Promoters:
Competitions UK at AllUKCompetitions.com
– Find the best UK Competitions brought together all in one spot. It’s free and updated daily!
The tiger who came to tea
We love Julia Donaldson – our favourite is room on the broom
My favourite story is The 3 little pigs x
Mine are any of the Harry Potter books!
Billy goats gruff loved this tale
The velveteen rabbit 🐰
Billy goats gruff x