Issue 115 is out now!

Spring is a Time for Colour!

Each season gives a flavour to our stories, and the start of spring brings extra colours to our pages. Eight talented artists were invited to illustrate the latest issue of Storytime – and all of them brought something fresh to each and every page! Here are the sunsets, cold snaps, woodlands, skies and mythical lands they brought to life. We hope it will be the start of a wonderful new season of storytelling for all. 

Otávio Valões created the fantastic cover art and illustrated The Great Escape, a funny tale about two rabbits who get out of their enclosure in a quest for freedom! This story is inspired by the adventures of two real-life rabbits – Otávio had photographic references of real rabbits called Avalanche and Moonlight (who are still living back in New Zealand after trying to escape!) to get the details right, and both bunnies and their owners gave him top marks!

How the Goldfinch Got Its Colours is a heart-warming folk tale about an angel who paints the vividly hued feathers of all the birds in the world, so we needed a fantastic artist to bring the right colours to this one! We made the right choice with Karolina Piotrowska, who created vibrant scenes where paint is splashed around joyfully!

A Very Whuppie Birthday is a sweet bedtime story about a girl on a quest to find a surprise gift for her sister. Gaia Torti’s pictures have the joy of a spring day that the story needs and might make you hungry for eggs on toast in the end! We love Molly’s attitude and energy and if you missed her fairy tale, grab a back issue 54 in our shop!

This month’s fable The Porcupine and the Snake, is about how two very different creatures become roommates one chilly winter! The talented Ella Rousseau created charming designs for the two characters, making the snake and the porcupine very cute and relatable indeed. And the result, is a heart-warming life-lesson too!

Turn the volume up now! Carol D’Avila was responsible for the illustrations featured in A Kind of Magic, about the childhood of young Farrokh Bulsara, but you can call him Freddie Mercury! She captured his expressions and character perfectly in her art, which will make you fall in love with the singer forever!

This issue also features a very famous myth! The First Tasks of Hercules is about the first labours that the famous Greek hero undertook on his quest to become a god. Tiago Souza created a suitably impressive look for the hero in his illustrations, but he also found the humour in the story! He splashed the pages with brightness and wasn’t shy about making each page unique. We loved his take on the Greek Myths and we hope he will be back for more.

And since we are visiting distant times, we also went to South America in this issue! The Legend of El Dorado is about a mythical place that might never have existed! Yet if you look at Tel Coelho’s illustrations, you might think he was there!  His art captures the mood, scale, and mystery of the story in an amazing way. You really feel as if you are on a journey through a dark and unknown continent as you read this story.

There are a few more interesting facts about mythical places before we wrap this story up and we hope you find them as much fun to investigate as we did researching them!

The gold in the El Dorado might not have been there but there are certainly treasures in this issue! Our fairy tale is also made of pure gold! Illustrating a classic fairy tale is a challenging task, but Fanny Liem managed it in great style for this issue’s The Gold Spinners. Her art is delicate and subtle, and her wonderful character designs have a real warmth!

We hope you enjoy discovering the amazing art created by these talented folks in this month’s issue. We hope it will be a very colourful spring, full of sparkles and beautiful skies. Such is the power of nature and the seasons that we always have something beautiful to look forward to. Wishing you all a great Easter and a spring full of stories!