Springboard Stories Issue 9 - "Codes" with fab illustrations by Becka Moor

Those lovely folk over at Springboard Stories know our weaknesses. Issue 9 just dropped through our letterbox and we have fallen head over heels in love with it.

Ada Lovelace - Geek Girl Supreme!

Add some sporty spice to your life with Springboard Stories Issue 5 - Sport

Thanks to the wonderful folk at Springboard Stories, we've been enjoying Issue 5 of the brilliant teaching and book resources magazine. Hitting the doormat just as the weather turned beautifully sunny (yes I know, it's not like that right at the moment we're typing this but hey, the timing was brilliant!) it turned our thoughts firmly onto getting outdoors and enjoying a healthy active sport-tastic lifestyle.

Coupled with brilliant posters, and a unique sporty story book - "Sports Day on Mount Olympus" by Paul Mason and Simon & James Walmesley, regardless of how you feel about sports, it's full of inspiring stuff, brilliant classroom (and home) activities, makes and ideas, and of course some fabulous sport-based book reviews (for those moments when the weather stops play). Tons of great advice from Teachers, Librarians, Authors, Artists and - er - the odd (very odd) book blogger are also in this packed-to-the-gills issue.

If you haven't subscribed to Springboard Stories - here's how.

Dash over to the Springboard Stories Website for a sneaky peek inside Issue 5, and look forward to the next astonishing issue - which will have a nautical theme!

Springboard Stories Issue 4 - "Space" - We are space nerds and we love this!

When you hear the wonderful folk behind Springboard Stories casually mentioning on twitter that their core aim is to make each issue just that teensy weensy little bit better than the last, you'd better believe them - Because it just so happens to be true and so far they're doing just that.

Springboard Stories Issue 4 - "Space" was an instant win for us, simply because we are a real family of Space Nerds. Grandad is the closest living thing in the family to being a rocket scientist (He worked for the European Space Agency and the SOHO Solar Project for a number of years). His influence definitely had an effect on my lovely wife and is also having an effect on Charlotte too.

Me, I've been a space nerd ever since I had my first telescope and watched science fiction become science fact as a kid.

So dipping into Springboard Stories Space Issue has been an absolute pleasure. As before you have a heady mix of brilliant information about school-friendly resources, an absolute plethora of gathered talent (including Joshua Siegal, who is coming up later this week on ReadItDaddy as a blog guest), and an accompanying story book - "Miss Wacky's Day Out" written by the extremely talented Peter Dixon and illustrated beautifully by the Walmesley brothers, Simon and James.

There's a rather beautiful set of pull-out posters for classrooms too. A superb astronaut mosaic by Cleo Mussi and a particular favourite subject of Charlotte's at the moment, the marvellous Mars Rover doing its thing all over the red planet.

If you've yet to subscribe to Springboard Stories, you can find out how to via the Springboard Stories website or just pop in to take a look at what to expect from the magazine and accompanying materials.

If you're a teacher looking for a rocket-boost to your lesson plans, or a parent who wants to find out more about a whole host of interesting activities and learning opportunities, Springboard Stories should be your number one cosmic destination du jour!

Monkeying around with food in Springboard Stories Issue 3!

Once again we're extremely grateful that Springboard Stories have let us take a look at their fantastic packed-to-the-gills magazine, filled with brilliant ideas, discussion and stories.

This issue revolves around a subject very dear to my heart, food and creatures very dear to Charlotte's heart, monkeys!

Dipping in, there's a brilliant retelling of the ancient Chinese "Monkey" stories. For those of you who grew up in the 70s and 80s and can only remember "Monkey" as being that funny little guy who rode around on a cloud and biffed baddies with his stick, it'll be a revelation. Debjani Chaterjee's version of the story revolves around Monkey being extremely naughty while trying to worm his way into the King's royal fruit gardens. With illustrations once again by the very talented Walmesley Brothers (Simon and James), it's a great story to share with class before examining the various monkey-based activities that accompany this delightful little book.

Elsewhere in the magazine, there's plenty of mouthwatering morsels to enjoy. There are fab activities based around food with an eye on literacy and numeracy. Setting up a classroom cafe (that suitcase-based cafe is adorable, where can we get one?!) and writing menus, totting up bills are all good fun and stimulating for children (Charlotte enjoys this activity already at home, either setting up her cafe or her supermarket)

Look out Waitrose, you've got some competition!

One of the main reasons we like Springboard Stories' publication is that there are so many triggers for talking points. Not just with children but with other adults (particularly the wonderful book folk I am lucky enough to be in touch with on a daily basis). The Monkey legend was a particularly popular topic this week, examining the various ways the legend has been adapted and 'westernised' over the years -  from Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's big budget West End stage production of "Monkey: Journey to the West" to the popular videogame adaptation of the legend (Enslaved by Ninja Theory).

It was great to see the 60s animated version getting mentioned, as this is probably one of the most powerful and faithful versions of the stories. There are sumptuous images from that version to enjoy throughout the magazine.

If you're a teacher, librarian or interested in child literacy, numeracy and of course wonderful wonderful books and you've yet to experience the sheer wealth of information and activity ideas on offer in Springboard Stories, drop by their website and check out their subscription rates and the wealth of free material they offer in addition to the magazine.

http://www.springboardstories.co.uk

Charlotte's favourite bit: The brilliant Monkey story included with the magazine (I think it's because Monkey's more than a bit naughty in it really!)

Daddy's favourite bit: Some brilliant artwork spreads (Springboard's posters in every issue always end up on the wall or the pinboard!) and fantastic activity ideas. A metric ton of fabulous and inspirational activities. I just don't know how they manage to pack so much in!

Last year, the light icing-sugar dusting of snow we got down here in the wilds of Oxfordshire wasn't quite enough to run a sledge over. We love snow, and the crisp crunch of it underfoot so we loved Springboard Stories issue 2 - devoted to the lovely stuff!

Springboard Stories have collected together a seemingly impossible gigantic wealth of content to cram into their second issue and if you're getting in the mood for christmas (46 sleeps to go, peeps) then you'll absolutely love diving in and looking at the activities, book news and features.

There is also an absolutely fantastic centre spread poster of a snowy scene to stick on the wall (we love it, but we love the mag so much we don't really want to destroy it so we're trying to think of clever ways of extracting that scene without ruining the magazine too much!)

Best of all, there's a fantastic children's story book that arrives with Issue 2 - The Christmas Wish by Clare Bevan, Illustrated by Simon and James Walmesley and we're going to dive in for a closer look.

One snowy night a young boy makes his christmas wish, to see enough snow to build a Snow Dragon! No small request this, but the boy's letter goes astray and ends up taking its own magical journey through the world - aided by various feathered friends who fly from one mythical character to another to try and solve the mystery of what the letter is about.

The atmospheric story is beautifully told and superbly illustrated by the Walmesley brothers (who you'll remember came up with the brilliant Platypus characters for Springboard Stories issue 1 - which you can still also order from the Springboard Stories Website).

As the temperature drops and those winter nights draw in, whether you're a teacher, a parent or just someone looking for some of the best possible resources and story info from an extremely talented collective of teachers, artists, designers and writers, you really should drop by Springboard Stories and take a closer look at what they're up to. You definitely won't be disappointed!

Charlotte's best bit of the magazine: That wonderful snowscene spread and the brilliant 'makes'
Charlotte's best bit of the book: She loved the fact that the wizened old wizard had socks and a scarf that matched the 'Springboard' Platypus's wonderful coat of many colours!

Daddy's favourite bit of the magazine: A very interesting and thought-provoking article on adventuring and polar exploration. Really fascinating discussion and topics and a brilliant article
Daddy's favourite bit of "The Christmas Wish": That utterly fantastic island made of crystalline howling wolf heads. Heck of an image, that! Love it!

Links: 

Springboard Stories

More details on Springboard Stories Issue 2

(Kindly supplied to us for review by the lovely folk at Springboard Stories)

Springboard Stories is a veritable cornucopia of brilliant ideas gathered together in an interesting website, supported by fantastic quality paper publications too. We were lucky enough to be sent one of Springboard's latest books and it's a superb animal tale with a rather poignant message. So let's make like a Platypus and dive in!

Children familiar with Aesop's Fables, or more recently the excellent Tinga Tinga Tales will love "How the Platypus Got His Shape" by Anne (Tiddalik) Faundez. It tells the story of a beautiful but incredibly vain animal whose lustrous rainbow-hued fur, beautiful retroussé beak and huge shiny eyes became the rather odd creature we know (and love) today.

Platypus was once a dazzling spectacle to behold, strutting around admiring himself in watering holes and pools, so exactly how did he end up transformed so dramatically?

You know what I'm going to say. You'll have to read the book to find out.

The book is beautifully illustrated by the Walmesley brothers (we particularly loved Platypus in his original form, and that's become Springboard Stories' hallmark, quite rightly so!) and one rather interesting aspect of the story is the words it uses, designed to compliment and stretch an early reader's vocabulary with some quite weighty language that flows beautifully to build the story.

Please drop by Springboard Stories and follow them on twitter (@sprngbrdstories) as they are doing some amazing things.