The Ministry of Stories

The Ministry of Stories is an organisation dedicated to the creation of stories by a new storytelling generation.

This is the exciting thing that they say for themselves:

We’re here in Hoxton because we love stories. And we know others do too, so we aim to help young people write their own stories. Why? Well, let’s start with a true story…

Once there was a shop in San Francisco. It sold everything a pirate might need. And if you went through the Pirate Shop you’ll find young people writing stories, taking part in workshops and word games, receiving one-to-one mentoring from adult writers who volunteered their time. 826 Valencia was the brainchild of Dave Eggers, himself a successful writer, and educator Nínive Calegari. Soon shops with writing centres attached opened up in Los Angeles, Brooklyn and other parts of the USA.

Some of us on this side of the Atlantic liked the sound of that and we thought London could do something similar. With Dave Eggers’ blessing, and led by writer Nick Hornby, we set up shop in Hoxton High Street. The Hoxton Street Monster Supplies sells everything that any monster needs.

But there’s more to it than keeping monsters stocked with the goods of their best nightmares. Behind the shelves of monster supplies, there’s an entrance to another secret place.

The Ministry of Stories.
And that’s official.

Free Nursery Rhymes and Listening Resources

From the people who do ‘Storyphones’:

I thought that you might be interested to know that we have some free nursery rhymes and other listening resources available on our website. These can be downloaded and used by practitioners regardless of whether they have StoryPhones or not. The link for these is http://www.storyphones.co.uk/resources/downloads.html. I would be grateful if you could pass this on to any schools, nurseries or childminders in your area who might find these useful.

Story Museum

Thanks again to my Twitter friend ‘Joga5′ for this exciting idea and collection of stories:

The Story Museum

The Story Museum exists to celebrate children’s stories and to share 1001 enjoyable ways for young people to learn through stories as they grow. We take story performances, exhibitions, activities and ideas to schools and communities. In 2014 we plan to open a magical new centre of children’s literature and storytelling in the heart of Oxford, UK.

New iTouch/iPhone app for EYFS

If you want stories for your little ones then it is well worth having a look and a listen to this new FREE app. Read Me Stories – a new talking book every day.

Storybird

Go on be creative … you just know that the children you teach want to. Visit Storybird … make it happen !

Storybirds are short, visual stories that you make with family and friends to share and (soon) print.

Rock on Rockford

For those of you who have followed Rockford’s Rock Opera ( and for those new to it) there is now an enticing new addition to the story – a Read Along section. You can now literally read along with the whole story !

Storynory

Thanks again to my feeds Danny Nicholson of the Whiteboard Blog directs me to Storynory, a free audio story site for children.

This is what they say about themselves:

Storynory is an online treasure trove of audio stories. Here you will find a mixture of new stories, fairy tales, and specially adapted myths and histories. We also have a sprinkling of verse.
We have published an audio story every week since November 2005. Storynory has grown and grown in popularity, and now around a quarter of a million mp3 files are downloaded every month from our servers.
Our stories are read by Natasha Gostwick and her clear story-telling voice has won a place in the hearts of children and adults all over the world.
The founders of Storynory are Matthew Lynn and Hugh Fraser – the co-owners of a Blog Relations , an online consultancy that can help you build your reputation via online media. Storynory is a prime example of how its done.
Matthew is a ghost writer for a number one best selling series of books by a well known personality. Hugh is a former BBC radio journalist.
If you would like to partner with Storynory, or sponsor our audio stories, please contact via hugh at storynory.com.

CBeebies – Jackanory Junior

It is not often I venture into the world of CBeebies … perhaps I should more often … because today I discovered CBeebies Radio on Jackanory Junior and was able to listen to Mark Benton’s super reading of Dick Bruna’s ‘Boris and the Umbrella’ … wonderful stuff

BBC Picture Book

BBC iPlayer is just wonderful ! I missed the first episode of ‘Picture Book’ on BBC Four but I won’t miss another.  This three part series explores the enchantment of the illustrations in children’s books. The first being ’When We Were Very Young ’ (there are still 14 days left to watch this episode) the second ‘Now We Are Six’ (to be first broadcast on 12th November at 21.00) and the third being ‘Now We Are Growing Up’ ( to be broadcast at 21.00 on 19th November).

If you have children who are young, or are a teacher, you will immediately empathise with the series and will recognise the authors speaking and the pictures that they show and talk about. My childhood and those of my children and all my years of teaching came sweeping back as I watched and listened.

This series promises to be a total joy !