Welcome to Puffin 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 Puffin World of Stories in partnership with our friends at the UK’s leading literacy charity, the National Literacy Trust, in 2018.
Puffin 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
Introducing our new Puffin World of Stories Ambassador
We are delighted to introduce our first annual ambassador - award-winning actor and author, Nathan Bryon. Over the course of Bryon’s ambassadorship, he will promote the importance of reading for pleasure to participating schools via virtual content and in-school visits, as well as interactive resources based on his books.
Bryon’s debut picture book collaboration with illustrator Dapo Adeola, Look Up!, recently won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Both Look Up!, and his most recent book Clean Up! will be included in the donation of 300 books to every participating school. Bryon has chosen to focus on the importance of diversity and representation in children’s books as a key feature of his ambassadorship.
As ambassador, I’ve made it my mission to promote diversity in children’s books. A book has the power to change anyone, so they must be available to everyone – with young people from all backgrounds able to feel excited and inspired by the characters they read about.”
Nathan Bryon, Author
Our new partnership with Yoto
We've teamed up with Yoto, the audio platform for kids behind the critically acclaimed and award-winning Yoto Player - a carefully connected screen-free speaker made for children and controlled with physical cards.
This year, Yoto has kindly donated a Yoto Player, Card Case and Card set to all 86 primary schools on the programme, enabling a new and portable way for children to enjoy audiobooks as part of their World of Stories reading space.
What does Puffin World of Stories offer?
Each participating school receives for free:
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300 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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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
Puffin 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
Where are our schools?
All our participating schools are state schools based in clusters local to Puffin’s London offices, as well as in Gateshead and Middlesbrough in the North East - one of the most vulnerable regions to literacy problems in England. From September 2020 we’ll also be extending our programme to Nottingham, a National Literacy Trust Hub.
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.
Results so far
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Now the library is creative and full of adventure!