Issue 127 is out now!

Spring is a Time for Colour!

It’s no secret that we love stories! Every tale we write for Storytime is like a letter from a wonderful world that we want you to visit with us!

But for us, the magic really happens when we send our tales off to be illustrated. An immensely talented person sends back their own vibrant vision of a tale. It’s a wonderful surprise, and the things we encounter when we open those precious files often take us by surprise (in a wonderful way!)

This month, we’d like to give you a preview of the worlds you will visit in our latest issue … and this time, we brought worlds that have disappeared altogether!

Have you ever heard of Dodos? They have gone extinct but thanks to brushes and paints they are back in Storytime. And that’s the superpower of stories… and as long as you are with us, dear reader, we will keep making magic… every month! Pack your bags and come with us!

We start in Japan, where The Firefly Princess lives in a water lily blossom. Eleonora di Pieri faced several challenges when illustrating this story – for one thing, it is about insects, and secondly, it takes place on a scale different quite different from ours. Insects are tiny, after all! Eleonora turned fireflies, crickets and beetles into fun characters and created a wonderful world of pastel blossoms for them to inhabit! Can we be their friends too?

Ngan Pham faced a similar task when drawing the art for The Ant and the Dove, except in this case the main character was an ant (called Annette, of course). She did a wonderful job of zooming down to an ant’s eye view and really brought the character’s environment to life. This fable is about being kind and paying forward with kindness. We hope it inspires you to good deeds!

This issue is filled with little characters, and the theme continues with A Teeny-Tiny Tale. Polina Ugarova illustrated the story of a tiny woman in a tiny cottage in a tiny village, and she had lots of fun packing fun details into every corner. We’re sure you will have fun discovering them all – see if you can spot a snail hidden in there too!

The last of our mini-scaled tales is The Orchestra of Hamelin, a sweet tribute to ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’. Heitor Soares Primo  (the second ‘Heitor’ to provide art for this issue!) had to make its rodent stars appealing… but he went one better by making them absolutely adorable instead!

How do you go about imagining creatures that nobody has seen for hundreds of years? You’ll have to ask Roger Simó, who brought these fun extinct birds back to life for Dodo Island. He used historical illustrations and existing stuffed dodos as reference to start with, but his art really makes the birds lively characters and brings out the humour in the story.

And since we are visiting worlds, what about we go to Brazil? Domingo’s Cat is a traditional Brazilian fairy tale, but we decided to give it a twist. ‘Magical realism’ is a form of literature that combines a realistic modern setting with fantastical elements, and we embraced it in this story. Luckily, artist Heitor Vidal totally got our idea and came up with a perfect blend of wonder and real life with his colourful art. You all shall agree that this magic cat is amazingly cute, too!

The Clockwork Universe was inspired by the life of one of the greatest scientists and mathematicians of all time: Sir Isaac Newton. Anna Kalicinska took on the task of bringing the late 7th century to life and got the details just right while making Isaac himself a vibrant and lively character instead of a name found in dusty history books. We were transported back in time, and that counts are a whole world too… doesn’t it? are incredibly cute and fun, as you will see by looking at Milena Molenda’s art…

Illustrating a myth from another culture is a particular challenge! Felipe Rodriguez Rodriguez gave us art for the Maori legend of Maui and the Secret of Fire. Felipe captured the feeling of the tale perfectly, taking us from Maui’s home village to the volcano lair of his grandmother – the goddess of fire herself! Thanks to his art, this story will live on in your mind for a long time…

We are already dreaming of new places to visit soon again! And we hope you are too. Next month we will invite you to play with stories. Are you up for it? Stay tuned!