As parents all around the world are wondering how to keep their kids educated, busy and having fun during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, a popular Australian story website is helping them to do just that. 

Storyberries was established five years ago by writer Jade Maitre with the aim of providing fresh, free kids stories online. The social-purpose startup now enjoys more than 25 million reads from around the world every year.

Along with many hundreds of free, delightfully illustrated original picture books, poems, comics and fairy tales, each story is also accompanied by discussion questions designed to get parents and kids talking about life through literature. 

“I felt it was really important to try and humanise technology,” says founder Maitre. “As a mother of five little boys who were growing from toddlers to children, I started to realise how useful stories and poems were to so many of the things we learn and carry through life. They are a legacy of the parenting that has come before as well as what is happening now: the life lessons and magical observations that continue to be relevant throughout generations. And stories are so helpful to all of us as we approach parenting; like an enduring community that has our back.”

The organising by theme of its stories and poems is a keystone to Storyberries. Maitre explains:

“I wanted to organise quality stories so that, for example, parents who were looking to encourage self-confidence in their children could find the stories that would help them do it; or who were suffering fears, or needing help to go to bed… We gather each of our stories together in ways that we hope are helpful, and provide talking points at the end of each, so that reading becomes much more than a solitary endeavour… instead, an opportunity to bond and learn between parent and child.”

But it’s not just parents who have been using Storyberries. Schools, universities and daycare centres all around the world have also been enamoured with the site, who often write to the site to request permission to use the stories and questions in their class plans, and even to adapt the stories for such diverse learning experiences as plays and multimedia presentations.

And now, with parents everywhere faced with keeping their children both occupied and educated at home, they are flocking in ever-greater numbers to Storyberries.

“Being a very fluid and responsive publishing environment, we are able to provide stories that speak to the issues that parents and children are discussing at the moment,” says Maitre. “For example, several weeks ago we published a picture book discussing the Australian bushfires, and next week we are releasing a picture book that aims to ease anxiety around COVID-19, focusing on helpful things kids can do, such as washing hands and understanding germs. All of these books are completely free, and can either be read together, listened to on audio, or watched as an animated story.”

And with a diverse range of protagonists in its stories that celebrate children and cultures from all around the world, the message is sure to resonate with children everywhere. 

Now, at a time when conversations have never been more important, this children and parenting resource is really coming into its own.

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