Innehållsförteckning för December 2025 från Storytime

His mother read him stories about the fairies that were supposed to live near their family home in Ireland. When he grew older, he would lead his eight sisters on expeditions to explore the garden behind the rambling house where they lived. “What lies beyond the hedge?” he would ask. “Perhaps we’ll find fairy gold!” Their father would read poems to them all in the evenings, and the children would spend afternoons discovering incredible facts in the books they found in his study. “Look at this!” Ernest said one day, pushing a book towards his big sister, Kathleen. On the page was a huge pillar that towered above the buildings of a city. “This is the Monument!” Ernest told her. “It was built after the Great Fire of London!” While…

For Karan, it was the busiest day of the week! “Get your fresh spinach! Onions! Jackfruit! I have the best prices in town!” Customers gathered in front of his stall. Some were workers and servants, but priests in robes and housewives in silk saris also lined up to buy vegetables. Karan counted coins, added up how much things cost and loaded customers’ food into baskets. He was very busy! When midday came, most of the shoppers went home for lunch. Karan sighed with relief. It was then that a young man came up to the stall. Karan noticed that he wore a nice cotton robe. He seemed shy and quiet… not proud and boastful like a noble. “Do you have any spinach?” “I have one bunch left. Three copper coins!”…

BRILLIANT BOOKS TO CURL UP WITH! ➨ A FIELD GUIDE TO WINTER by Gabby Dawnay, illustrated by Dorien Brouwers (Thames & Hudson) will inspire you to see the chilly season in a whole new way. It’s packed with fun facts, gorgeous illustrations and activities that teach us about why winter is such a special time of year. ➨ THE HUMBLE PIE by Jory John, illustrated by Pete Oswald (Harper) is a book that stars a dessert! The humble pie is happy to stay in the background while his cool friend the cake gets all the attention – but can he stand up for himself to get a school project finished? Young readers will love the relatable story and illustrations that look good enough to eat. ➨ A PLACE JUST FOR ME by Loredana…

“It’s the same every year! All that noise is giving me a headache!” she complained as she strode out through the front gate. It was freezing cold at the North Pole, but the Snow Queen didn’t mind the chill. Through the driving snow, she could see the bright lights of a workshop in the distance. She marched over and banged on the door. It was opened by a friendly white-bearded man in a red hat. “Why, hello neighbour! What brings you to my workshop?” “The noise of your elves hammering and sawing is keeping me awake!” the Snow Queen said crossly. Santa apologised and invited her into the factory. Inside, cheerful elves were making toys and games and wrapping them in ribbons and brightly coloured paper. “They’re preparing gifts for…

Ernest Shackleton qualified to be a ship’s captain. In 1901, he took part in the British National Antarctic Expedition on the ship Discovery, commanded by Robert Falcon Scott. Shackleton helped with scientific experiments in Antarctica. He got ill and returned to the UK to recover. In 1907, he set off on his own expedition to reach the South Pole on the ship Nimrod. His team had to turn back when they ran low on food. After this expedition, he was knighted by King Edward VII. Shackleton then led the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-17, which planned to cross Antarctica. However, his ship, the Endurance, was trapped by sea ice in 1915. The crew managed to escape and reached Elephant Island. Shackleton sailed to South Georgia on a small boat. He…

Zero is a very special number that helps us to do all sorts of cool calculations! Brahmagupta knew that when you do maths using zero, you can get some strange results. 0 × 0 = 0! In fact, a trillion times zero is still zero! 0 + 0 = 0! And 0 - 0 = 0! Zero plus another number equals that number, and zero minus another number leaves that number unchanged. But what happens if you divide a number by zero? Brahmagupta believed that the result would be zero, but he was wrong about this. Nowadays, most mathematicians agree that the result of dividing any number by zero is undefined – no real number can be the result of this calculation. When people use a computer to divide by…

PLAY FAIRYTALE BINGO! How can you make listening to stories even more fun? By playing a game of bingo with your Story Club friends while you enjoy a tale! WHAT YOU WILL NEED! First, you will need some stories! We recommend classics like ‘Snow White’ or ‘Cinderella’, as these will work best with bingo – but most of our fairy tales will work! You should download a set of fairy-tale bingo cards by scanning the QR code to the right and print it out. Each sheet has two bingo cards, so cut each sheet down the dotted line. Print as many as you need – there are eight designs in total. Bring enough pens or pencils for everyone, too! HOW TO PLAY! One member of the club should be the…

How to Play You will need four or more players, the cards on the opposite page (you can download them by scanning the QR code to the right and then print and cut them out), pencils, pens and sheets of paper, a dice and a device with a timer (like a mobile phone or watch)! ✶ The players should be divided into teams, with at least two players in each. Shuffle the cards and put them face down in a place where everybody can reach them easily. ✶ The team with the tallest player goes first. The youngest player in that team should pick up a card from the pile without showing it to anyone. The other team should start a one-minute timer. ✶ The player must draw a picture…