A NORTH-EAST author is appearing regularly online to help families make the most of the lockdown by enjoying story-writing and storytelling together.
Author and former teacher Adam Bushnell, from Hartlepool, is holding live YouTube storytelling sessions twice a week to help entertain children and, hopefully, inspire them to write themselves.
Adam, who has written 15 books for children as well as six academic books for teachers on writing, regularly works with schools to develop pupils’ creative writing skills.
He has already held several storytelling sessions on the video-sharing site, reading aloud his own stories and recounting tales from the North-East’s rich history, including the legend of the Lambton Worm and the Bishop Auckland Boar.
He said: “Storytelling is one of the oldest traditions in the world, and with modern technology, we can now come together and share stories with each other in more ways than ever before.”
Adam also shares drawings, stories, and models which children have sent him, and he hopes he can help families to rediscover and fall in love with storytelling during these difficult times.
Each session lasts around half an hour, and Adam finishes with special shout-outs to families who have let him know they’re listening, and suggests fun literacy activities for children to do afterwards.
Hundreds of people have already tuned in for Adam’s stories, with viewers as far away as Vietnam, China, Malawi and the Middle East.
Adam has also partnered with Darlington Building Society to help judge the “Little Did I Know” short story competition, which has received more than 300 entries.
After he helps making final selections from a short-list of six, the winning entries will be read live by Adam during one of his YouTube broadcasts.
He added: “It’s been such a pleasure to work with Darlington Building Society on this competition. I’ve been very privileged to get to see the fantastic young writing talent we have in our region, and to share my own work with children all over the world.”
Families can join in every Tuesday and Thursday at 2:30pm by visiting Adam’s YouTube channel, where all of his previous story-telling sessions can also be found.