The wonderful team of researchers at Queen Mary University London had been exploring the idea that myths and legends still have lessons to teach us – especially in the age of COVID-19. They wanted to create content for children using classic stories to talk about up-to-date issues like social distancing, isolation and proper hygiene, supported by fun puzzles and activities to keep kids engaged and entertained too. 

We were thrilled to get together and come up with a format that felt right for the project. We Are Heroes was born from many virtual meetings, research, ideas and a wish to do something that mattered! Together we wanted to share a message of resilience, strength and hope.

As our readers know, we believe that stories are more than just entertainment – they have an important part to play in teaching us about the world, and especially how to deal with difficult circumstances. It was therefore of huge importance to make We Are Heroes widely accessible to every child who could benefit from it. 

We contacted every single primary school in the country to make We Are Heroes available, for free, to every primary age child – and since October we have sent out many thousands of copies. We’ve had some incredible feedback from teachers and are so proud of how far this project has reached, and that it is helping children to deal with the difficult situations in which many are finding themselves. 

We called the project We Are Heroes – because we can all be the heroes in our own stories.

Each issue contains two myths or fables and is organised around a theme – ‘Protecting Yourself and Others’ and ‘Be Kind & Keep Clean’, are two examples. We Are Heroes also has a section called ‘Story Quest’, which poses questions to get readers thinking about the adventures in more depth and how they could be relevant to their own lives. There are also puzzles and activities, including crosswords and wordsearches. 

There will be six issues of We Are Heroes in total, the final edition coming out in March, and we will keep all issues of We Are Heroes available online for everyone – we hope you all enjoy them! They are for you to read and share. Most importantly, we hope it will help teachers, parents and little ones to navigate these difficult times with the courage and bravery of these myths and legends. We are all in this together – and we truly believe stories will help us all. 

You can download them from https://www.storytimemagazine.com/we-are-heroes/

Please feel free to share the link , spread the love and keep safe everyone!