The Story Corner (issue 12) by bookmarkreading

The Story Corner

A gift of stories and games for you to share and enjoy

INSIDE: lots of fun for ages 5-10 Stories, games and activities

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Read for Fun this World Book Day®!

Reading is a never-ending adventure for you to enjoy! Reading can be funny or scary, stories or science, fairies or football – it’s up to you how, what and where you choose to read for fun. Sometimes it can feel like we need to do things a certain way, but there is no set or right way to read. This World Book Day explore what works best for you.

You could read a chapter book, picture book, comic book, listen to an audiobook in a secret den, in a treehouse or even on the loo! It could be reading with your family or friends or reading by yourself. It could be being read to or reading to others, even to a hamster! Reading is all about having fun and discovering the magic of stories, adventures, or facts in your own way.

You can choose one of the special World Book Day books for free with your £1/ €1.50 token. Dive into the pages to discover something new or different, or revisit characters you already love. You might encounter a Magic Balloon, the wonders of space, forest creatures, or even Paddington bear!

Choose the book you want to read the most– don’t worry about what other people think! You might like Tom Palmer’s book ‘The Soccer Diaries: Rocky Takes the Lead’ or Stephen and Anita Mangan’s book ‘The Fart that Broke World Book Day’, or a book about LEGO® or Pokémon, you’ve got the power to choose. You could even pick your favourite World Book Day books with your friends and swap it and discover even more fantastic reads together!

Choose your free book!

Just cut out and use the token to choose your World Book Day £1/€1.50 book for FREE from 13th February until 23rd of March. If none of the £1/€1.50 books take your fancy, then you can use your book token to get £1/€1.50 off a book or audiobook costing £2.99/€3.99 or more and choose the book you want the

Hello you! My name is Leigh Hodgkinson and I LOVE creating picture books for children (and adults!) to enjoy. I have always been passionate about drawing, writing stories and making things. I am autistic and also have ADHD so my brain is VERY busy. This can be overwhelming in a world that is very busy too. I think that creativity helps me make sense of my thoughts and feelings.. It helps me understand how I fit in - that I belong. (This is VERY important, as we need to feel safe and happy and loved. To be able to shine and be who we really are). Through my drawings and stories - I share ideas and find connection with other people all around the world.

The Martha Maps books I have made are really special to me as they are about this extraordinary spinning planet that we live on… Earth! Each one of us is SO tiny compared to the Earth, the Solar System, the Universe… SPACE! This thought COULD make you feel unimportant and small… but you are not. There is NOBODY like you ON EARTH… and there will NEVER be another you on Earth… EVER! You are AMAZING! This is what my book “Martha Maps it Out” is all about.

The next book “Martha Maps it Out in Time” is about TIME. It takes us through the incredible journey that our Earth has been on and how lucky we are to be here, RIGHT NOW, to share it together. In these books there’s a little girl called Martha who loves drawing maps. And the stories are told through these maps.

I love maps! Maps aren’t just for boring things like motorways and roundabouts. Maps are just stories that you can see and they can take you in lots of different directions. Also, did you know that maps can be of things you can’t even see?! Like thoughts, ideas, feelings, your imagination and other stuff in your mind. Have you ever drawn a map? If not you should DEFINITELY try it!

Bye for now!

By Leigh Hodgkinson

Where would you like to visit?

How many of these can you spot... Land animals

Animals with feathers

Martha Maps It Out © Leigh Hodgkinson, Oxford University Press 2022

Sea animals

beluga whale

Rocky mountains

Uluru lynx cat poison dart frog

Arctic Ocean

A Very Important Tree

Illustrated by Liam Longland

Written by Elana Bregin

Designed by Heni Andrag

Edited by Carla Lever Book Dash

This is a WORDLESS PICTURE BOOK

Follow the pictures to help write your own story underneath

Follow from left to right

This type of poetry is Haiku. Each Haiku only has three lines. Haiku poetry is traditional in Japan. The lines follow a pattern of syllables, 5-7-5

Draw a line to match the seasons with the pictures

POEM Seasons Haikus

Try writing your own Haiku!

A Year in Nature

Explore the Countryside, Month by Month - by René Mettler

January

July

February

August

March

September

Can you draw a place that you know through the seasons?

Your home, the school playground or somewhere from your imagination…

SPRING SUMMER

Grandpa Farouk’s Garden

Illustrated by Sam van Riet

Written by Matthew Kalil

Edited by Ingrid Nye

Published by Book Dash

Read from left to right

When they finish, they feast on a harvest of fruit. One day, Grandpa didn’t eat his pear.

“What’s wrong?” asked Amir.

Deep in the city, surrounded by houses and bricks and tar, you’ll find Grandpa Farouk’s garden.

“My garden is dying,” replied Grandpa. “Why?” asked Amir.

“Look closely,” said Grandpa. “Some pests are eating the plants.”

For a whole week, Amir looked and searched and collected. He found one ladybird on the sports field.

Amir visits Grandpa once a week. He loves the leaves and flowers and trees.

“We need ladybirds!” said Grandpa. “They are the bugs that eat the pests that kill the plants. Without ladybirds, the garden will die.”

Amir helps to water the plants. He helps with the compost, and works with his Grandpa all day.

Two more at the shop. Three at the park. And four behind the TV.

Next week, Amir went to visit Grandpa Farouk, and showed him his jar of bugs.

“You’ve done well, oh my boy, you’ve done well,” Grandpa said, with a tear in his eye.

Grandpa was very happy. The ladybirds were very hungry!

How many ladybirds did Amir collect? Can you draw them in the jar?

How many other garden creatures can you find in the story?

The ladybirds ate the pests, and the garden blossomed.

From that day on, Grandpa Farouk’s garden did what gardens should do. It grew and grew and grew.

Grandpa Farouk’s Garden, originally published by Book Dash 2018 under a Creative Commons License BY 4.0.

HOW THE EARTH WORKS: INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT EARTH

by Dr Lucía Pérez-Díaz

Earth is BIG! Compared to us tiny people, Earth is really big! If you could walk all the way to the centre of the planet, you’d need to walk for 8 hours a day… for over two whole years!

Earth is like a big cake! Earth has layers, kind of like a cake. The outer layer, called the crust, is quite thin. If Earth were the size of an apple, the crust (with all life as we know it on it) would be as thin as the apple’s skin!

Only 1% is drinkable! Most of Earth is covered by water, but only 1% of it is fresh and drinkable. The rest is salty or frozen in ice.

Earth’s core is HOT! The Earth’s centre, called the core, is as hot as the surface of the Sun - about 5000 degrees celsius.

No sandy feet. Did you know there isn’t a single grain of sand on the world’s biggest desert? It’s Antarctica! Instead of sand, it’s covered in snow and ice!

Earth has an invisible shield. It’s called a magnetic field, and it acts like a giant invisible shield, protecting us from harmful space radiation.

The Sun is HUGE. From here, the Sun might look small, but it’s actually so big that you could fit over a million Earths inside it! That’s one massive neighbour in space.

We’re zooming through space! Earth orbits the Sun really fast. In fact, in the time it takes you to read these facts, you’ve already traveled over 5,000 miles through space! Isn’t that cool?!

Tectonic plates are always on the move. Earth’s outer layer is broken up into pieces called tectonic plates. They’re always slowly moving—about as fast as your fingernails grow! These moving plates are why the Earth has mountains, oceans, earthquakes, and even volcanoes!