The Story Adventure

Fleur Hitchcock

Author Fleur Hitchcock tells us about her new project Story Adventure, which aims to put children in charge of the stories written for them

Chapter one of The Story Adventure goes live this morning. It’s scary for me, but also exciting because it represents the beginning of what can only be described as a literary experiment happening in real time, with the help of hundreds of children.

It all started when nearly a year ago, I was using a cement mixer. It occurred to me, that cement mixers were obviously designed by people who never used them. People who were unnaturally tall, strong and who loved cement blowing back in their faces. Oh, and deaf too.

It irritated me that I couldn’t tell the people who designed cement mixers how unusable they were, and that I couldn’t contribute to the design of a better one.

It got me thinking. Children’s books are mostly driven by the publishing industry. They’re nearly all written by adults, edited by adults, selected by adults, published by adults, and very often, reviewed by adults. Something wrong, surely.

I was also aware through spending time in schools, that children don’t always come forward with ideas, very often through lack of confidence, fear of embarrassing themselves in front of their peers, or lack of interest – but they have huge ideas, and when there’s room to stretch, they can take their ideas a long way. They play with stories.

And so, over a pot of edamame beans, Sara O'Connor of Hot Key Books and I discussed the idea of allowing children to write a book themselves. Not hundreds of different books, but one book, one with their names in the back that used their wildest ideas, one which would give them a say in what they were going to read.

This is what we hope the Story Adventure can do - give vent to those imaginations, let children come up with random ideas that they DON'T have to spell properly, give children some ownership, and give them something to read that they REALLY want.

It's open to children everywhere, and they don't have to pay to join in.  The site is safe, and open. Check it out here.

Read our review of Fleur Hitchcock's Shrunk