I'm always on the look out for toys to keep my noisy and active children quiet, to give me those blissful and elusive few minutes of peace that I crave. My oldest child is 7 and very imaginative, but sometimes she struggles with story telling and writing. When I saw these Story Cubes on Amazon I thought they would be an ideal little gift for her.


So far I have only spotted the cubes on Amazon where they sell for around £7. You can get these original Story Cubes in the orange box as well as Actions in the blue box and Voyages in the green box (all the same price of £7).


For your £7 you get a sturdy little box with nine dice in. Each die (yes that is the singular of dice, yes I am a pedant when it comes to these things) is just over one centimetre across and instead of dots has a picture indented into each side. Each die feels solid and as the pictures aren't printed on then there is no chance that they can rub off - a quality product.

The nine dice fit snugly into a removable plastic inner so they don't rattle around. The box itself has a magnetic closure too so chances of dropping and losing the dice are greatly decreased. I keep these dice in my handbag when we are going out, they are excellent for the car and for restaurants. The box has survived these regular bashings over the last six months and looks (almost) as good as new.


As I said, each die has six pictures instead of dots. Each one is a simple black and white line drawing. A few of them need a little bit of turning and interpreting - several can be interpreted in several different ways e. g the 'theatrical mask' that could also be an alien, the fire that could also be a dragon and a few of them need explaining to younger children -the identity card, the scarab and the compass points.

The box gives you three suggested ways to use them:

1. Roll the dice and make up a story that uses all of the images
2. Think up a theme, roll the dice and then use the dice to tell the story
3. Divide the cubes between people, roll the dice one at a time with each person adding to the story with their turn.

It also says its good to use them as a party game/icebreaker, for creative inspiration, as a mental workout and also to develop problem solving, speaking and listening skills.


My daughter took to these cubes immediately and uses them independently a lot to create her own stories. They have lived next to her bed for months (barring the occasional weekend trip out in my handbag) and she uses them most nights. She has played with me, with her dad, with her friends and once, very unsuccessfully with her younger brother. Just today she brought them down to play with her grandparents, making up a story with my MIL about a man who lost all his clothes and had to use L plates to cover his bottom. Much hilarity was had on both sides. They are not sophisticated enough perhaps for serious adult creative writing inspiration, but they are a useful little tool to get the creative juices flowing and breaking a short dry spell.


These little cubes are quite unassuming, but really are loads of fun. I am very old-fashioned when it comes to entertaining kids, I would really much rather that they used their imagination. In addition I would rather they used their imagination without too much input from me. These cubes fulfil all my top toy criteria and more, so its easy to see why they have won awards. These cubes would be great for a child who needs a little structured help with creative writing or developing their imagination and are also a nice tool to encourage discussion and conversation as well.