Everyone loves to hear a good story that's well told with lots of colour and imagination, but we're the first to admit it's not easy. Between them, our presenters have decades of experience (some have more decades than others!) in bringing the printed word to life, but we're great believers that with a bit of practise just about anyone can become a good storyteller. We all have the tools to do it, it's just a matter of unlocking the box.  Click on the link over there on the right of this page to hear how.

If you'd like to sharpen up your story telling skills, you're not alone. We carried out a survey of 250 parents who have children aged between 4 and 9 to find out when and how they read to their offspring. The findings were quite surprising. 44% said they read to their children regularly; 37% said they read daily, with 19% saying they never read to their children. The research also found that 33% of parents surveyed blamed a lack of time as a major factor in preventing them from reading to their children, with many telling us that after a long day, they were just too tired (we can sympathise there!).

But perhaps the most surprising finding was that only 19% of parents in our sample thought they were any good at storytelling, with the vast majority confessing to just muddling through. We believe that TheStoryMouse.com isn't a substitute for reading to children, but it can be complementary, so to that end we've included a free 5-minute master-class where some of our presenters give away their trade secrets. The master-class also includes TheStoryMouse.com's Top Ten Tips for bringing a story to life. You don't need to download the master-class - just click on the link to the right and the audio will start to play automatically. We hope you find it useful for your own story telling. As ever, drop us a line with your thoughts here

We hope you enjoy the stories!

The Story Mouse