FREE STORY LINKS

Links to free stories and games from The Book Trust
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/have-some-fun/storybooks-and-games/

WorldStories is a growing collection of stories from around the world. The collection includes retold traditional tales and new short stories in the languages most spoken by UK children.
https://worldstories.org.uk/

News for 2022


All our flip books are working again now and ready for you to enjoy!
In case you weren’t aware, a lot of the stories link up with a Friendship project which you can find under The Friendship Adventure page of this website. It’s a free to download and use project that promotes inclusion and friendship and is aimed at primary school aged children. If you haven’t discovered it yet then do take a look.

Strawberry Jam Books is 10 years old this year - 10 years of free stories that encourage kindness and friendship. Do you have a favourite? Get in touch and let me know which one it is and why! We will be marking the milestone by adding some special new links to free stories later in the year so keep checking back.

COMPETITION TIME!
If you are a young person who enjoys writing stories yourself you might be interested in these competitions that are open to young writers:
https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/competitions-for-children/childrens-writing-competitions/

Happy reading - and writing!
Hilary and Strawberry Jam Books

Greetings from Strawberry Jam Books

Winter 2020 to Spring 2021

If it’s damp and cold or foggy out there then there is no better time to curl up indoors with a good story!
Strawberry Jam Books stories focus on friendship themes. Check them out on our Books page. They are free to read! There are plenty of other free story sites too. Here are just are few:
https://www.storyberries.com/
http://www.magickeys.com/books/
https://www.storynory.com/

Did you know that sharing stories with young children can have a life-long beneficial effect on their emotional, cognitive and social development? And children are never too young to discover stories and books!
Follow the link below for all sort of information about reading with children, development and further handy links:
https://www.pacey.org.uk/parents/resources-for-parents/tips,-factsheets-and-downloads/sharing-books/

Wherever you find your stories - online, from the library, from local bookstores - keep reading, sharing and enjoying because the enjoyment of books and reading can become a lifelong pleasure.
Happy reading.
From Hilary and Strawberry Jam Books


[image credit pixabay]

Autumn 2020

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss

Spring 2020

Millions of children, parents, teachers and others took part in World Book Day this year. It’s a great way to encourage love of story and reading. Highlights for schools are often enjoying author visits and encouraging children to dress up as a favourite book character.

Books aren’t just for World Book Day of course! With free sites offering free-to-read stories too, never have so many sources of books been available – whether in physical print format, audio, digital, braille or other.

How about taking part in this year’s Summer Reading Challenge? Find out here how to take part and it’s free to join in:
https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/
Or, if when you’re reading this, it isn’t possible to get out into libraries how about making your own Spring and Summer Reading Challenge!

Make a list of at least five books to read over the coming months.

Many children’s authors are providing free story time readings on line at the moment to support children at home. Search online to find which ones. Or check here:
https://www.weareteachers.com/virtual-author-activities/

Enjoy stories together! Read to yourself, out loud to others, listen to others reading, read aloud over skype to grandparents or others.

Happy reading!
Hilary and the Strawberry Jam Books site

Autumn to Winter News

With chillier days upon us what better time to curl up with a good book or story.

Spotlight Children’s Book Reviews is a great place to find recommended titles and links to books and reviews are added several times a week. There is a link to Spotlight in the previous news entry below.

I’d also recommend LoveReading for Kids and Book Bag Reviews.

There are updates to the Strawberry Jam Books site and you’ll see that the school/groups project resource book The Friendship Adventure is now a free to access book. You can find it on the Friendship Adventure page. Just click the book cover for the free version which includes the photocopiable worksheets. This is part of our phasing out of purchasable Strawberry Jam Books (except for titles in the Story Therapy series) and making this site a place for free accessible stories and resources for all.

Happy reading!

Hilary and the Strawberry Jam Books site

Spring to Summer 2019

Greetings from Strawberry Jam Books - seven years old this spring!

We’ve been making some changes and developments and so our Story Therapy® collection of resources are now all over on our new separate Story Therapy resources website as a separate project and social enterprise business. (Links and information will remain on Strawberry Jam Books and will lead you there).

On this site the Strawberry Jam Books collection of free stories and resources that promote friendship and inclusion remain are available to read on the Books page. The Friendship Adventure is available to purchase and links our story books to activities and games. Print versions of the stories are still available to buy from amazon sites. To celebrate our seventh year several of these titles have been updated with new covers.

If you’re looking for more stories and recommended books for children then follow Spotlight: children’s book reviews on facebook where links to reviews are posted most days.
https://www.facebook.com/spotlightchildrensbookreviews/

Happy reading!

Autumn to Winter 2018/19



Our Resources Directory has several new useful links covering subjects such as Left-Handedness in children, “living” books for those with sight loss/impairment and a link to the inspiring Upsanddownsmum blog by parent Emma Clarke sharing her life and insights as mum to Joshua who has brain damage.

Our Story Therapy range of stories and resources continues to be popular with schools and many parents. The Little Bag of… range now includes: Little Bag of Cards and Activities, Little Bag of Feelings and Little Bag of Teddy Match-Emotions Game. You can find them all on Amazon or in our own Story Shop.

Submissions:
I sometimes get submissions of lovely stories or illustrations sent by authors and artists. Unfortunately Strawberry Jam Books is a small not-for-profits family run project and we prepare or source all resources ourselves. I can’t give anyone else’s work the opportunity or reward it deserves and so am not able to consider submitted material even when it is completely brilliant. Children’s author Lou Treleaven has a wonderful list of publishers who consider unsolicited work – here is the link to her useful site https://loutreleaven.com/2010/07/21/childrens-publishers-accepting-unsolicited-manuscripts/

Pinterest:

Finally, take a look at our Story Therapy Pinterest page for all sorts of ideas and links that support children’s emotional health and mental well-being.

Spring/Summer 2018

Try our new look story shop here.

GDPR

Winter 2017/2018

Two more new products for the Story Therapy® series of resources:
Two Cd pack of Imagine! and Stories for Feelings for Children
Find it here



And coming soon!
Little Bag of Feelings from Story Therapy® - cotton drawstring bag with both of the above cds plus match-emotions card game and make and play emotions cube game. For all children and supporting emotional and mental well-being in a fun and nurturing way. The amazon link will be on our Story Shop page soon.

Summer 2017

A new free downloadable Little Chestnuts book is now available on the Books page. Just scroll down to find it. This is a pdf which you can print out and make into a activity booklet. It is 18 pages of puzzles, colouring etc for young children. Themes of caring, helping, sharing, friendships aswell as learning activities.

We’re working on a Story Therapy® game/card game which will be available later in the year. The cards will be based on characters/themes from the stories in the series, along with some affirmation cards. There will be several game options to play with the cards.

Spring 2017

For younger children


Little Chestnuts: nurturing early years now has its own facebook page. You can find it here @nurturingearlyyears If you’re looking for ideas, links and resources specifically for younger/preschool/foundation age children then check in each day. Posts include articles on learning, learning through play, nurturing stories, educational activities and children’s all round emotional health too.

If you have written a book for young children or created a great preschool activity that children can enjoy at home or preschool then like the page and post it in the visitor’s post section! All brilliant ideas will be shared on Strawberry Jam Books Facebook and Twitter pages too.

I’m working on adding another book to the Little Chestnuts series (see bottom of Books page on this site). It will be a free-to-read/downloadable book with themes of sharing, helping each other, kindness and friendship. More details later in the year.

Two of the titles in the Story Therapy® series are suitable for younger children too. Just Be with Bizzy Bee and Little Acorn and the Great Big Happy Hug! are nurturing, fun stories for sharing. Find them both on Amazon sites.

Happy springtime reading!
Hilary & Strawberry Jam Books

Autumn/Winter news 2016

You can listen to samples from Imagine! - eight fun, calming interactive stories for children. Just click on the link here to listen:

Individual tracks can be purchased from CDBaby (just follow the link after you have listened and found your favourite stories).



Imagine! is also available as a digital download or as a CD from Amazon



Little Acorn and the Great Big Happy Hug is now available in paperback as well as e-book version. It is a cheerful, nurturing and interactive story for children aged five to eight and the latest in the Story Therapy® series.

Review from The Bookworm Gang:
“I enjoy the positivity of the Strawberry Jam Books, and this new book is a great resource for helping kids to feel calm, safe and happy. Following the growth of a baby acorn into a sturdy oak tree, the story encourages kids to use their imaginations and to pretend that they are the acorn, and that they can feel their own roots growing downwards, and their shoots growing upwards. Each stage of the acorn's growth is accompanied by words which will help the child to feel hugged, grounded and loved.

After the main acorn story, there are 2 more interactive activities for kids to try, where they imagine they are a butterfly and then an owl. I loved that the book also ends with some great positive affirmation cards for children, with a link to go to in order to print these out.”

With chillier winter days ahead it’s the perfect time to search out and find books and stories for children. Don’t forget there are the free abridged versions of Strawberry Jam Books stories on our Books page - as well as print and often digital version available to buy from Amazon. Happy reading!

Late Summmer News

Summer 2016



Stories for Feelings for Children is now available in audio version from Amazon, Audible and itunes. Narrator Louise Robinson Brouze’s engaging reading of the seven stories makes this book accessible to more children and turns it into a nurturing and fun story-time too.

Coming Soon! The next addition to the Story Therapy series will be Little Acorn and The Great Big Happy Hug. This is an interactive narrative for children to act out or listen to, along with an extra calming relaxation or visualisation activity at the end of the book. Formats will include e-book and audio. Available from August.

April/May 2016
Awards for Strawberry Jam Books!


Really thrilled that titles in the Story Therapy Series have won several awards this month!
The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards - a Red Ribbon Award for Just Be with Bizzy Bee and Bronze Award for The Forever Tree in their 6-8 years children's books category.
Titles in the Story Therapy Series are now also proud recipients of the prestigious Mom's Choice Award®

The Mom's Choice Awards® (MCA) evaluates products and services created for children, families and educators. The program is globally recognized for establishing the benchmark of excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. The organization is based in the United States and has reviewed thousands of entries from more than 55 countries. Around the world, parents, educators, retailers and members of the media look for the MCA mother-and-child Honoring Excellence seal of approval when selecting quality products and services for children and families.

More titles:

The Story Therapy Series is turning out to be the most popular in the Strawberry Jam Books collection and so I'm creating and adding more titles to this series. This will include some audio or CD versions/titles - calming, relaxing stories with simple meditations for children. More news on this in the summer!

Reviews:
The Play Doctors Ltd are a wonderful organisation that create and promote learning materials and resources for visual learners and other special needs. Their Senior Consultant, Wendy Usher, was recently kind enough to give some feedback on the Story Therapy series:

The forever Tree
"I love the concept of this book using a deep rooted tree and the seasons to help children understand stages of life and that things happen to create changes. However we stay true to ourselves we can grow strong even though we live through changes we will indeed forever be ourselves. The book allows the reader to interact by photocopying pages and using the ideas pages to create practical games and discuss the concept with the children in a playful and interactive way."

Just Be with Bizzy Bee!
"This is my favourite book so far. I love the concept of relaxation and how children can relate to the busy Bee and need to take time out sometimes. The fact box at the beginning of the story is a good resource and leads children to more research if they wish. The illustrations are clear and easy to see offering the child the opportunity to 'find' other things within the pictures."

Stories for Feelings:
"This is an engaging book for children to read or listen to the stories being read. Each story has a moral or idea that can be discussed with the adult adding in questions that could be used in a small group during PHSE or individually…We would suggest an adult reads the stories prior to reading to the children and consider some questions for the child that are about the story to help them understand and empathise with the characters… We feel that this book would be a good addition to any collection and can become a valuable tool in supporting children to understand their feelings and emotions."

Spring 2016

We hope you like our new look website banner with links to all the different parts of the site.
Just Be with Bizzy Be! is now available in paperback or as an e-book. It's the latest in our Story Therapy series of books and is a short and colourful story that introduces children to the idea of simple meditation or, as Bizzy would say, how to "just be!" You can see the book here on Amazon

November 2015 - January 2016

Autumn 2015

Have you discovered our Pinterest board yet? It’s called Story Therapy - lots of lovely books that nurture and inspire. Check it out and follow here.

We like the beetlelight.com site - action adventure video books.

Did you know that Beyond Violet has a US Readers' Favorite 5 Star Seal/Review award? Click through to see the review: https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/beyond-violet



Happy reading and don’t forget: reading is for everyone!



Hilary and Strawberry Jam Books

Summer 2015



Two new titles were added to the Strawberry Jam Books list back in April. Some readers and reviewers suggested that an illustrated edition of Stories for Feelings would be great! - So check it out in our Story Shop and on Amazon: Stories for Feelings The Illustrated Edition. It's a larger sized book than the non-illustrated version, but has the same stories along with lots of fun, beautiful, bright pictures on every page that children will love.

The Forever Tree is also available in paperback. It's a full colour book - an interactive and talk-together narrative for a parent/adult to share with a child that will help children recognise and deal with emotions and feelings.

Our free stories and flip books are available to read on the Books page as always.

Finally, we'll soon be adding a new page of lists and links to resources, support and ideas that will be helpful to parents or teachers of children who have special or specific needs. We intend to add to the list so that it grows into a useful directory. The link to the new page will be at the top of the Games page as soon as it is ready.

Find your favourite Strawberry Jam stories and Happy Summer Reading!



Hilary and Strawberry Jam Books

Spring 2015



It’s our birthday!

Strawberry Jam Books is three years old! Help us celebrate by downloading or reading one of our stories, finding your favourite paperback in our amazon linked Story Shop and telling your friends about our resources for all and our story and gift packs. And come and join us on Facebook and twitter if you can!



Strawberry Jam Books (founded and run by author Hilary Hawkes with occasional assistance from family members!) has become a member of Social Enterprise UK. A social enterprise is a project or business with a mission or cause that benefits others or specific groups in the community. In this case Strawberry Jam Books is also a not-for-private-profit and small family run project - our Story Shop funds the story and gift packs donated to eligible UK children’s groups.

On the website our latest book addition is How to Handle Worries and Anxieties - another free-to-read flip booklet in the How to Handle series. Check it out on the Books page.

Look out for more additions soon!
Hilary and Strawberry Jam Books

Winter 2015

Have you discovered the video trailer for our new Little Chestnuts series yet? Check it out on Youtube below.






We’re working on creating a small number of nurturing story and gift packs for UK groups/schools etc who support children with specific needs. You can find more information about this here. We’ll be adding other gift packs as funding allows.

As a social enterprise and not-for-personal-profit project, we use any profits and surpluses from our book sales to reinvest in creating more resources that promote our aims: providing materials that promote understanding, acceptance and fairness for children who live with differences, difficulties or disabilities.

Strawberry Jam Books will be three years old in 2015! We have evolved from being a website offering free stories, ideas and information to producing print versions of some of our titles, our Friendship Adventure project for primary schools or children’s groups and our story and gift pack give-aways for eligible groups/individuals. We’re in the process of putting what we do on a more official footing as an organisation recognised as a community beneficial project. More news on this soon!

Autumn News 2014



This Autumn/Fall we’ve introduced our first paperback version of one of the Little Chestnuts stories for younger story lovers. ‘Merry Christmas, Little Owl’ is available from Amazon and you can see it in our StoryShop! There are a total of 26 titles in the Little Chestnuts series to develop into print picture books– so look out for more next year and beyond! The stories are about the characters who live in Little Chestnuts Wood and have themes of kindness, friendships, caring, helping others, accepting differences and being glad to be who you are.

We also have a bright, fun new cover for The Friendship Adventure and we’re developing some ideas for fun additional things for you to have in your Friendship Adventure Pack in the future. So keep an eye on the StoryShop page!

There’s another free read on our Books page in the How to Handle series. This one is How to Handle Friendships – reader age guide 10 to 12.

We have two more sites to add to our list of favourites:

Animals Actually (see our Games page). A fantastic series of videos, games and books about kindness.
http://www.animalsactually.com/

And KidLiterature – a site for children’s authors, illustrators as well as parents, teachers and readers of children’s books.
http://www.kidliterature.com

Finally, as well as joining twitter last month, Strawberry Jam Books are also now on facebook and you can find us there at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Strawberry-Jam-Books/490465954305331

More Summer news 2014

Strawberry Jam Books likes the following sites and resources. Take a look!

Adventures from The Book of Virtues Children’s short animation films. This one is about friendships:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4DBCWAWiBQ

Mencap’s anti-bullying animations: Don’t Stick it. STOP IT!
http://www.dontstickit.org.uk/

The Play Doctors Ltd
Practical resources and training to support the inclusion of all children. An award winning site and business aimed at parents, teachers etc.
The Play Doctors Ltd gave us a great mention in their July/August Newsletter. Thank you Play Doctors!
http://www.theplaydoctors.co.uk/

Update on our Story Shop: Our Story Shop is now Amazon linked so the paperback versions of Strawberry Jam Books are purchased directly from Amazon.

We have a bright new cover for The Friendship Adventure. May take a day or two to filter through to different online sites.

Finally, you can now find us on Twitter!
Follow @StrawberryJBks

Summer 2014

Strawberry Jam Books Story Shop is now ready. See the link on the Books page. Or click here. Paperback versions of Strawberry Jam Books can be purchased through the online shop, as well as our new project for schools and children’s groups: The Friendship Adventure.

New Year/Spring 2014

Autumn 2013



Check out two new stories. 'Friends and Heroes' for readers 11+ and 'Why Not a Rhino Too?' for younger story lovers. We've added them at the top of the Books page!

We've put our current activity suggestions for teachers and children's groups (along with new activity ideas) in a flip book ready to read at the top of our Games page. Useful for helping children learn about inclusion, understanding differences and friendship.

Happy reading!

May 2013



Strawberry Jam Books are working on adding two new stories to the website - another novel for readers 11+ and a picture book story for the picture book section. As usual both will be available to read here on our website - or download to e-readers.

We’re also working on new ideas for resources for schools and children’s groups - but more about that later in the year.

If you’re going on holiday then don’t forget to download a Strawberry Jam Books story to take with you!

Happy reading.

Winter/Spring 2013



Strawberry Jam Books are celebrating. Since launching our website in March last year there have been over one and a half thousand downloads of Strawberry Jam Books' stories, e-books, games and information/resources.

We're starting off the new year with two new downloadable books: Beyond Violet for readers 10/11+ and another title in the How to Handle Series, How to Handle Bullying.

Beyond Violet is the story of 12 year old Ellie's family. Ellie writes in her journal about her life and especially about her older sister who has autism and the family's everyday struggles because of this. Ellie often feels her family is different and misunderstood and she sets out to explain the truth about living in a family like hers.

How to Handle Bullying gives tips and advice to anyone dealing with bullying. It explains why bullying might start, how serious the effects can be and how to get help and support.

Plus! Look out for the new puzzles and links to new games on our Games page!

September 2012

Back to school month for many! Have you read our How To Handle series yet? Aimed at upper primary and lower secondary pupils, they offer tips and ideas for managing homework, tests, exams or starting a new school.

Teachers/group leaders: after all the efforts and achievements of those inspiring Paralympians don't let anyone have the chance to forget that people who have disabilities have as much to offer as anyone else. Use our books and stories and group activities to help children learn and understand about differences and disabilities.

Look out for brand new stories and books to be added to the Strawberry Jam Books website over the next few months.

Happy reading!

Summer 2012

Nearly all Strawberry Jam Books are now available as free versions you can download for your e-reader directly from our website Books page.

Just download our PDF version of the book to your computer and then upload that to your e-reader. Once on your e-reader you can adjust to landscape view as this will enlarge the print appearance.

So now there are two ways to enjoy most of the Strawberry Jam Books - read the flip books here or put them on your own e-reader.

Happy reading!

May 2012

This month we're adding more games to the website. The eight new ones, which you can play online, aren't linked to the Strawberry Jam Books stories or themes (unless you think they are!) - we've added them just for fun. So look out for them on the games page - some are easy and funny, others are tricky and brain taxing.

There will soon be more free books and stories for you to read directly from our site. We're also planning to make our free stories available as e-books as well as the current 'flip' book versions. You'll be able to download to your e-reader directly from our website. So when you want to take a story with you to read later you'll be able to!

Reader friendly:
Most Strawberry Jam Books are short and fairly easy to read. We want to make our stories reader friendly and dyslexia friendly. If this concerns you and you read a book on an e-reader remember that you can change the page colour from white to sepia and adjust the font size, number of words per line and brightness of the page to suit the individual reader. Doing this helps make reading easier for lots of people. New stories that we add for you to read from your computer screen will appear on off-white backgrounds and in dyslexia friendly fonts.

Spring 2012: Who are we?

Time to launch Strawberry Jam Books!
A project of e-books, online information, games and activities aimed at children aged mainly eight to twelve.

Strawberry Jam Books is a not-for-profit project that aims to promote fairness and understanding for children who live with difficulties, disabilities or difference. The stories show children’s lives and friendships with others developing through understanding and accepting each other’s differences.

Characters in many of the books may have a problem or disability but this is not an issue in the stories - in the same way that having dark hair or blue eyes or size three feet wouldn’t be an issue!

Other stories (maybe for slightly older readers) pay more attention to the problems faced by the main characters.

There are also picture book stories with themes of friendship, sharing, being yourself and caring for others.

The Strawberry Jam Books website will be a growing resource of books, activities, puzzles, factual and helpful information that will help readers enjoy the stories and think about others. Teachers can use the activities and themes/issues in the stories to assist classroom or group discussions and projects about friendships, bullying, accepting and understanding differences.