{"id":7038202,"date":"2026-08-15T19:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/national-share-a-story-month-2026-once-upon-a-storytime-the-federation-of-childrens-book-groups\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T19:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:47:14","slug":"national-share-a-story-month-2026-once-upon-a-storytime-the-federation-of-childrens-book-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038202","title":{"rendered":"National Share-a-Story Month 2026 \u2013 Once Upon a Storytime \u2013 The Federation of Children&#8217;s Book Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"text\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>National Share-a-Story Month 2026 \u2013 Once Upon a Storytime<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Share your love of stories by reading aloud!<\/p>\n<p>This year as part of our pledge to The National Year of Reading we have chosen reading aloud as the focus of National Share-a-Story month. Once Upon a Storytime invites you to celebrate the way that reading aloud and sharing a story with others creates a special magic of its own.<\/p>\n<p>Characters come to life with gestures and voices, the action has pace and atmosphere and best of all the reader and the audience are on the journey together.<\/p>\n<p>Meet the Queen with Sophie and the BFG, explore the woods with the Gruffalo, enjoy tea with the hungry Tiger and make friends with Tracey Beaker.<\/p>\n<p>At the Federation, we have been enthusiastically reading aloud to generations of children since our foundation nearly sixty years ago. Here is a typical anecdote.<\/p>\n<p><em>Once upon a time I had the pleasure of sharing some stories with a class of five years olds at a local village school for World Book Day. I opened Helen Cooper\u2019s lovely picture book \u2018Pumpkin Soup\u2019 and a little boy who I had noticed fidgeting near the back declared loudly, \u2018I know this book\u201d. I asked him to come and read it with me\u2026but no I wasn\u2019t needed; to the surprise of his teacher and delight of his friends, this lad told the story, on his own, off by heart and word perfect, with inflection and humour, to all his classmates. It was a magical moment for us all.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Our members know that reading aloud establishes a fundamental connection between reader and listener. Now scientific research is catching up.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Sam Wass is a neuroscientist and director of the Institute for the Science of Early Years and Youth at the University of East London. His research has demonstrated that when you read aloud to babies their breathing, heartbeat and brainwaves all synchronise with yours and so reading aloud promotes healthy brain development. \u201cBabies\u2019 brains are messy,\u201d he says. \u201cTheir brain rhythms are naturally just all over the shop. Reading gives us increased regularity and predictability \u2026 [and] \u2026helps a baby\u2019s rhythms to become more stable.\u201d\u00b9<\/p>\n<p>Despite all the observable benefits of reading aloud, so often we stop reading to children once they are able to read to themselves. Yet other experiments are showing that it can offer a path back to enjoyment of reading even among the disaffected. A book club trial for disengaged readers in Year 8\u00b2 found that 85% of participants found listening to stories or story extracts either enjoyable or \u2018ok\u2019. Meanwhile, the Teachers as Readers research recommends reading aloud as a key strategy for promoting enjoyment of reading.\u00b3<\/p>\n<p>Experience and research are telling us the same thing. The world of books is brimming with adventures ready and waiting to be shared. More and more wonderful titles are published each year: check out our booklist if you need inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>This month, embrace the enchantment of Once Upon a Storytime. Whatever the age of the children you come across, Go All In and read to them \u2013 aloud!<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Louisa Farrow (current NSSM coordinator and member of Birmingham Children\u2019s Book Group) and Louise Stothard (former NSSM coordinator and member of Northamptonshire Children\u2019s Book Group) <\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00b9Quoted in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/uk\/get-britain-reading\/article\/how-bedtime-stories-synchronise-your-childs-brain-with-yours-vc3b2mfp8]\">https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/uk\/get-britain-reading\/article\/how-bedtime-stories-synchronise-your-childs-brain-with-yours-vc3b2mfp8] <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00b2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.farshore.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/04\/Social-Reading-Spaces-2025.pdf\">https:\/\/www.farshore.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/04\/Social-Reading-Spaces-2025.pdf <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00b3 <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate.harpercollins.co.uk\/press-releases\/new-research-reveals-that-parents-are-losing-the-love-of-reading-aloud\/\">https:\/\/corporate.harpercollins.co.uk\/press-releases\/new-research-reveals-that-parents-are-losing-the-love-of-reading-aloud\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Share-a-Story Month 2026 \u2013 Once Upon a Storytime Share your love of stories by reading aloud! This year as part of our pledge to The National Year of Reading we have chosen reading aloud as the focus of National Share-a-Story month. Once Upon a Storytime invites you to celebrate the way that reading aloud [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":357551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[2268,352,3723,3724,5491,5306,200756,34250],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7038202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-book","tag-childrens","tag-federation","tag-groups","tag-month","tag-national","tag-shareastory","tag-storytime"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>National Share-a-Story Month 2026 \u2013 Once Upon a Storytime \u2013 The Federation of Children&#039;s Book Groups - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7038202\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"National Share-a-Story Month 2026 \u2013 Once Upon a Storytime \u2013 The Federation of Children&#039;s Book Groups - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"National Share-a-Story Month 2026 \u2013 Once Upon a Storytime Share your love of stories by reading aloud! 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