Title: Story Stacks
Author: Becca Stileman
Useful for: parents of children age 3-10 wanting to do faith together at home, childrens groups where Bible stories are shared
Best bit: large sturdy, bold character cones
Worst bit: the cardboard box they arrived in was a bit worse for wear to use to keep them in
Price: RRP £34.99 for 25 characters
My first impression of these was “Wow! They are big!” Having looked at the website, I’d imagined them only about 10cm high, so I was surprised by how large they are, which means they could work well in a group as well as a home setting.
They are well made, plastic not card, and so they will last a long time, a permanent rather than a temporary resource.
My children immediately got to work sorting out the characters and working out who could be who. Personally I’d’ve liked a printed set of How To Use to get us started, although there are lots of stories to download on the website but I’m aware with the wide range of thing they could be used for, it would be fab to have one or two ideas to inspire us on our way. also, it would be handy to have the pictures of characters to use on the story downloads, but that’s easily fixed.
Each cone character has a small number on the back to help work out which is which, although of course, you could use whichever you choose to tell stories. There’s LOTS on the website already, and you could use them to do any story you fancied. I had an interesting chat with my 6yo about why she’d chosen the character she did to be Jesus. She said that he looked “caring, like a childcarer, but not just caring but loving too, beautiful and everything good you could think of in the world. And that’s just like God.” Fabulous theological discussion.
My 6yo suggested there should be shorter ones for the Bible stories about children, and a baby for baby Jesus, Moses etc. I can see her point of view. I’ve always included children and babies in our playmobil versions of Bible stories and they seem to be a good way to help my children see themselves in the story, as well as validating the presence of children in the actual stories.
The characters are well drawn, and I really like how the angel is manly and has no wings.
The way they stack is great for storage, which for a faith at home resource is important to me. They’re small enough to pop in a bag and use for outside Bible stories.
They are an investment, but they feel like they will last a LONG time and can be used to share almost any Bible story. Definitely worth looking at if you have children age 3-10 years.
Oh and you could use them to stack in towers and drink out of. Multifunctional 😉