Doing Reading Differently – Discover Children’s Story Centre relaunches for the National Year of Reading
Discover Children’s Story Centre has been doing reading differently for more than 20 years – supporting over 1 million children and their families to develop a love of books and stories through a unique hands-on approach involving play, participation and immersive, imaginative spaces.
Following a temporary closure and major renovation, the centre has now reopened. It boasts a fairytale forest containing all the elements required for story making, from dragons to caves to ships to trip-trap bridges. A newly-planted Story Garden features a crash-landed spaceship alongside Baba Yaga’s hut on chicken legs. A cosy Storytelling Space runs a rolling programme of interactive, sensory performances, and a facilitated exhibition space features the work of an author or illustrator created as an immersive 3D world. Past exhibitions have been created in collaboration with Michael Rosen, Judith Kerr, Axel Scheffler and Julia Donaldson, Rob Biddulph, Dapo Adeola and most recently Nadia Shireen.
This summer, a brand new, immersive exhibition, Luna Loves London, opens on 25 July and recreates a child’s experience of the contemporary city – created with former Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho and illustrator Fiona Lumbers.
The major renovation project has seen the centre become carbon neutral and fix critical infrastructure like lifts and toilets, whilst responding to the current crisis in children’s reading for pleasure with new facilities:
The newly transformed space reimagines the family experience from the moment you approach the building, where a glowing monster on the roof and a gorgeous, family-collaborated mural by artist Hanna Benihoud brighten the Stratford High Street frontage. Step inside this vibrant community hub in the centre of Stratford, E15, and you will find a free-to-enter community café and bookshop complete with secret reading nooks, exhibition spaces, and dedicated areas for drop-in author and illustrator events and signings. Youngest visitors can explore a brand-new play gallery for babies and toddlers — developed with Professor Sam Wass of UEL — which is themed around an enchanted garden with cosy spaces and sensory elements designed to encourage early-years story sharing. The space also features a graphic retelling of Discover’s (totally real, intergalactic) origin story created alongside award-winning, world-record-breaker Rob Biddulph, alongside surprise invitations to imagine embedded across the entire building. Finally, keeping the diverse needs of all visitors in mind, a dedicated quiet room is available for breastfeeding, praying, or simply finding a moment of calm.
Discover calls their approach ‘stealth literacy’, whereby children see the museum as fun, whilst it secretly delivers deep learning based on the Early Years framework and play-based learning philosophies.
Discover celebrated its reopening with a party hosted by Michael Rosen and local children. The ongoing reopening festivities will include chances to draw along with celebrated author-illustrators Dapo Adeola, Nick Sharratt, Rob Biddulph and Trish Cooke. Alongside this, there will be specially commissioned multi-sensory workshops for 0-4s including a Little People, BIG DREAMS dress-up trail, caterpillar-making, dance, circus and puppetry in line with the centre’s approach to providing varied and multiple entry points to the world of stories.
To complement their improved building, Discover is running an amazing summer holiday programme of author and illustrator events, immersive exhibitions, LEGO-play streets and more. More on the event programme here.
Axel Scheffler said,
‘I’m always happy to visit and support Discover – it’s a wonderful place and an important centre for reading and children’s books. I have very fond memories of the interactive exhibition that was held there in 2017 featuring the books I have created with Julia Donaldson, and I had a lovely event last year to help raise money for the building refurbishment works. I’m very excited to see the improved centre this year, being quite appropriately the National Year of Reading – though I think of course every year should be a national year of reading, as reading is an essential part of the upbringing and development of children. I’m deeply worried about the declining numbers in the statistics – less and less children reading for enjoyment – less and less parents reading to their kids, but I’m confident that Discover is playing an important part in celebrating reading for children and stemming this trend.’
Joseph Coelho, Children’s Laureate 2022-24, said, ‘Discover has had magic thrumming through its veins since it first opened its doors. The announcement of Discover’s vital transformation is allowing that magic to bloom,and their important work will now be able to reach more children and families and help create more readers and dream builders.’
Prof Sam Wass, Director, Institute for the Science of Early Years said, ‘Discover is a unique cultural resource – not just for East London but across the entire UK. Storysharing is a unique and integral part of what makes us human. But research shows that it is also a crucial driver of early language and cognitive development – especially so for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This new space will offer the opportunity to open up the world of stories to very young children from diverse backgrounds, benefiting not just their language but also their attention, emotional regulation, and ability to see things from others’ points of view. We are very lucky to have Discover – and we should never stop feeling lucky.’
For more information, please visit Discover’s website here.
Discover Children’s Story Centre, 383-387 High Street, Stratford, London, E15 4QZ
