Whether you are reading, listening or writing a story, it is altogether a great experience of creativity and learning because stories offer your imagination infinite ways to explore the world and learn through it. And if you are one of the budding writers, here is a unique platform to showcase your talent — www.storybird.com. The site offers you to write stories or poetry by taking inspiration from the pictures and illustrations provided by the site it self.

Storybird is a unique website; it sparks users’ imagination by providing a collection of pictures and illustrations that ignite creativity. Interestingly, kids as young as five years can create their very own personalised stories. Also, because the steps are very easy, you just have to choose from the vast array of artwork provided free by the site. You can choose either from the list of illustrators, or from the portfolio of images using the keywords. The second step is to choose a format: for instance, write a picture book (with less text and more art), long form (with more text and less art) or poetry (with one image and selected words).

In step three, whatever you choose, drag and drop the pictures on your book while writing (use insert button wherever you want to insert the artwork). When you are done with your story or poem, you can either publish your work on the site’s public library or keep it private. You have the options to share on other social networks, via email or embed anywhere you want. Piece of cake, right?

You can read the stories created by other members, both young and older ones, and comment or ‘heart’ them. Heart them here means that you liked the story.

The site is great for all ages, but if you are younger than 13, you must provide a parent’s email address, and then your parent will be immediately notified that you have become a ‘storybird’.

Storybird preserves your stories, you can keep them, share or print them at www.storybird.com

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 4th, 2017