National Storytelling and World Book Day Week

National Storytelling Week and World Book Day 2026

Join Alice and her friends during National Storytelling Week for playful activities and creative writing fun with our downloadable resources designed to spark imagination and writing confidence.

...because every story starts with a dream.

Meet the Storytelling Gang

Meet Alice and the gang, they're inviting little dreamers with big imagination to dive into a week of creative writing, make-believe and storytelling fun stuff!

ALICE

The Big Dreamer

ALICE loves discovering new worlds and asking lots of questions. She teaches us to imagine, dream and start our own stories.

Literacy Focus: idea generation and genres

Lucky

The Rock-Star Lion

LUCKY has the fluffiest mane, the biggest heart and a red guitar that helps him be brave, even when he feels a little scared!

Literacy Focus: Rhythm, pace and tension

Joy

The Artist

JOY is the sassy and wildly imaginative artist of Dreamville. With her magical paintbrush always in paw, she brings colour, creativity and sparkle wherever she goes.

Literacy Focus: Use of illustration

Frankie

The Number Cruncher

FRANKIE loves maths and solving tricky problems with numbers, when he’s not calculating, he’s happily found at the tuck shop, snacking!

Literacy Focus: Reading comprehension

Bazza

The Builder Bear

BAZZA loves to build and make things from Raincloud machines to growing lollipop trees. He's the friendly bear everyone wants to meet!

Literacy Focus: Story structure

Sunny

The Stylish Scientist

SUNNY mixes science and style, creating clever solutions in the lab and spreading kindness wherever she goes.

Literacy Focus: Emotional literacy

Storytelling Matters

Whether it’s reading books aloud or creating our own stories, these activities light up many areas at once:

Language, Attention, Emotion and Memory

Through Alice and her friends, we aim to help children build confidence through stories and illustrations, while nurturing a lifelong love of storytelling.

Reading Together

From bedtime tales to silly adventures, shared reading can help children become confident thinkers, talkers and kinder little people — to us, that's pretty impressive!

Explore our storybooks

Storytelling Activities

Make a Pocket Comiczine

Fun writing and drawing activity to help develop creative writing skills.

Download Activity

Character Creator

Short burst writing ideas help develop creative writing skills.

Download Activity

Roll a Story

A fun dice game, use the prompts on each dice to help start your writing journey.

Download Activity

Describe this Scene

Short burst writing ideas help develop creative writing skills.

Download Activity

Love to Create?

Sign-up to discover more screen-free activities for children, from paper crafts and colouring sheets, including your exclusive 20 page NSW2026 activities pack!

This page and campaign are created by When Alice Sleeps as an independent, inspirational celebration of storytelling and are not officially affiliated with National Storytelling Week or the Society for Storytelling.
For official information about National Storytelling Week, visit www.sfs.org.uk.