Community > Storymakers Project
The Storymakers Project
Since 2017, I have been creating picture books with families in Tameside, near Manchester, U.K.
The Storymakers project is helping families prepare their young children for school, raising self-esteem & aspirations, and helping families make the most of library services.
“The children had never seen a 'real life' author or illustrator before and got excited when they came back to do more on the story. They loved the fact that their suggestions were appearing on the screen as they watched.”
Images credit: Darren Robinson Photo
Enquire online if you would like to discuss a project with me.
Welcoming families to library services
Storymakers is run by Tameside Libraries and funded by The Arts Council in year one, and Community Safety subsequently. The project involves around 500 families ever year and also includes weekly story time, songs and a chance to meet others young families.
“The children enjoy seeing the illustrator draw their requests and ideas. The books published over the years are still used in our setting now.”
Raising aspirations
Every year, I work with the project illustrator to lead families through the process of creating a picture book based on the year’s theme.
Everyone involved in the project gets a free copy of all the books!
“It’s wonderful to see the thought process and the stages of developing a book. The children love to share their ideas.”
Promoting kindness, tolerance & understanding
All the books are designed to help promote core values of kindness, tolerance and understanding.
During the first year, I worked with illustrator Adam Pryce created four interactive books designed to help families enjoy reading and exploring books together.
“It’s wonderful to see the thought process and the stages of developing a book.”
Promoting inclusion & diversity
Since 2018, Andy Rowland has joined the team as our illustrator.
Zeke’s Emergency, created in 2018/19, was designed to improve relations with the emergency services and help children understand what each service is for.
People Like Me, created in 2019/20, focused on community cohesion - helping children appreciate the value of diversity and inclusion within their community.
“Pupils really enjoyed it and seeing their ideas come to live in front of them was fantastic!”
Keeping it Local
In 2020/21 the whole Storymakers project went online due to the covid pandemic. How Kind is a picture book that reflected the importance of working together and helping others.
And in 2021/22 we created Our Community, a phenomenal search and find book based on the local area and featuring acrostic poems and oodles of alliteration. This has proved to be the most popular book to date!
“It’s lovely that the children get you be involved with the process and it helps their understanding of how books are made. In past stories, the children have recognised the pages they were involved with.”
Here are all the books we’ve made so far, with the newest at the top left:
