Storytime Magazine Review: The Screen-Free Subscription Every Family Should Try

In a world where children’s entertainment is dominated by screens, algorithms, and autoplay, a physical magazine that drops through the letterbox every month feels almost radical. Storytime is a monthly children’s magazine filled entirely with illustrated stories — fairy tales, myths, legends, adventure stories, poems, and puzzles. No adverts. No plastic toys glued to the cover. No screen required.

We’ve been subscribing for over a year. Here’s what we think.

What You Get Each Month

Each issue contains around six stories, each illustrated by a different artist. The range is impressive — one month might include a Greek myth, a Japanese folk tale, an original modern adventure, a nature poem, and a retelling of a classic fairy tale. There are also puzzles, drawing prompts, and a creative writing challenge. The quality of illustration is consistently high — these are proper artists, not clip art.

Why It Works for Our Family

It arrives addressed to the children. This sounds like a small thing, but receiving your own post when you’re six years old is genuinely exciting. They tear it open, argue over who reads it first, and then we read stories together at bedtime. Each story is the perfect length for one bedtime session — long enough to be satisfying, short enough that you’re not still reading at 9:30pm.

The diversity of stories is done well. It’s not performative or tokenistic — it’s a genuine global collection. Children encounter Norse mythology alongside West African folk tales alongside Chinese legends. This normalises the idea that great stories come from everywhere, which is valuable in itself.

The Home Education Angle

Each story is a jumping-off point for further learning. A Greek myth leads to geography (where is Greece?), history (who were the Ancient Greeks?), art (draw your own Minotaur), creative writing (write your own myth), and drama (act out the story). One magazine can fuel a week of cross-curricular, interest-led learning without any planning from you. For home educators who struggle with “what should we do today?”, Storytime is a ready-made prompt generator.

Value for Money

A subscription works out at around £4-5 per issue. That’s less than a children’s book, less than a comic, and significantly less than any subscription box. The magazines are sturdy enough to survive repeated reading and robust enough to keep on a bookshelf as a permanent collection. Our older issues still get pulled out regularly.

For more reading and learning resources, visit our Home Education Hub.

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More answers: see our complete UK Home Education FAQ, covering the 20 questions UK parents ask most about home educating.