Welcome to World of Stories
At Puffin, we believe that stories can inspire a child to feel that they can be, and do, anything.
However, not every child in the UK has access to books and stories. Libraries are suffering from a chronic lack of investment – 44% of schools serving the UK’s most disadvantaged communities do not have a school library. We created World of Stories in partnership with our friends at the UK’s leading literacy charity, the National Literacy Trust, in 2018.
World of Stories aims to address some of the key challenges facing reading for pleasure in schools where budget constraints often mean investing in school libraries and librarians and buying new books is not an option. Research shows that reading for pleasure improves children’s ability to read, write and progress at school, as well as having a positive impact on their mental wellbeing and empathy.
So far, we’ve worked with 225 primary schools, supporting them to transform their libraries and reading spaces into hubs of creativity and imagination.
Love of reading is one of the reasons I went into teaching . . . this has motivated me and reminded me of what's important.
Participating teacher
What does World of Stories offer?
Each participating school receives for free:
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400 brand new books from Puffin
From much-loved classics like Roald Dahl and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, to new voices
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100 books from our partner publishers
Including from Barrington Stoke, Lantana and Knights Of.
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Bespoke training
For participants, delivered by the National Literacy Trust
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Audiobook downloads
Introducing schools to the power of audiobooks to reach children who struggle to read
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Colourful resources
To bring reading spaces in schools to life, including posters, bookmarks and bunting
Who is involved in the programme?
In 2021, we welcomed seven independent publishers to the World of Stories family - Lantana, b small, Barrington Stoke, The Emma Press, Scallywag Press, Knights Of and Sweet Cherry. Participating schools receive a total of 100 books from the seven publishers, which include fiction, non-fiction, picture books, biographies, graphic novels and more.
Which schools are eligible?
To make sure we’re targeting our support where it’s needed most, all schools taking part have a higher than average percentage of pupils receiving free school meals - which we use as a proxy for disadvantage.
We have now closed recruitment for 2021/2022. We will begin recruiting schools for 2022/23 in the summer term in the following areas: Black Country, Newham, Barking and Dagenham, Blackpool, Essex, Swindon, and Redcar and Cleveland.
If you would like to join the programme in the future, please get in touch to express your interest.
World of Stories has made more of a difference than I could ever have imagined.
Our Library Coordinator is constantly coming to me with new ideas and has already put many of them in place. There is a long queue outside the library most lunchtimes, with children waiting to borrow or swap their choice of the fantastic books we have been given, and the student librarians are enjoying running the system.
I am so grateful that we were chosen to take part.
Teacher at participating Essex school
Our World of Stories Ambassador
Award-winning actor and author, Nathan Bryon, champions of the importance of reading for pleasure as our current ambassador. Participating schools will have access to a range of author resources and videos from the eight publishers, including from the World of Stories ambassador.
Nathan chose to focus on the importance of diversity and representation in children’s books as a key feature of his ambassadorship and his books, Look Up! and Clean Up!, are included in the donation of books to every participating school.
Results so far
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Now the library is creative and full of adventure!