How To Make A Story
Is another brilliant book
From Naomi Jones
Illustrated by Ana Gomez
This is the perfect book
To share with children this
National Storytelling Week
This is a joyous celebration
Of stories
Of imagination and creativity
Of collaboration
Of sharing stories
This is a story about
Finding the courage
To start
Asking a child to tell
Or write a story
Can be terrifying for them
They may feel unsure
Of what to say
How to begin
They may have a
Head filled with ideas
But speaking those out loud
Or writing them down
Does not always come easy
I have four neurodiverse children
They all have amazing imaginations
They are all always making up
And sharing stories
But they find sharing them
A challenge
A fear of speaking in front of others
A reluctance to write
Stressed about spelling
Unable to write without A LOT of help
My children are not unusual
They are not alone
All children have stories inside them
Many need help and encouragement
And inspiration to bring them out
How To Make A Story
Share’s Milo’s story
Of wth help from hs family
And the world around him
He found a story
And shared it
With his family
And with the readers of this book
Milo thinks that he
Does not know how to
Make a story
He is worried that
He will get it wrong
His mummy reassures him
That stories cannot be wrong
A story needs a beginning
A middle and an end
Milo’s mummy helps him
With the beginning
She helps him come up with
A character
Milo is excited and his story
Begins to grow
Nana helps Milo to think of
Something his character might want
Milo finds ideas all around him
His family prompt him
When he gets stuck
His Dad tells him that
The middle of a story
Is usually where things get
Trickier and more exciting
Milo soon finds a problem
That can be solved in his story
And his ideas twist and turn
And lead him through his
Amazing story to The End!
Milo is so pleased and
Proud of himself and his story
He had lots of fun
Making a story
Now Milo wants to share it
And so he writes it down
For everyone to read
Yesterday I read this with my children
Ages 5 – 12
And they all wanted to write
Their own stories like Milo
William linked his to mythology
Esther to a story Daddy
Used to tell them when
They were younger
Bea was inspired by the
Cheeky sneaky squirrels
In our garden
Edie wrote about her hedgehog
She was hesitant at first
But then she told me her idea
Together we told the story
Then she told me the final version
Which I scribed for her
Then she illustrated
The children likened this book to
We’re Going To Find The Monster
By Malorie Blackman and
Dapo Adeola
Esther and Willliam also linked it to
An Authorfy challenge they did
With Ross Montgomery
About choosing a place you know well
And making a scary spooky version of it
This is a book with HUGE potential
For inspiring little storytellers
And their grown ups
How To Make A Story
Publishes on Thursday 2nd February
But we have had ours a while now
Thank you Waterstones!
The perfect pages to explore this
National Storytelling Week