This one-off edition of The Funday Times is part of The Sunday Times Get Britain Reading campaign, added the publisher. One in eight children aged five to eight don’t own a book, and only one in three children say they enjoy reading, according to research from the National Literacy Trust.
Yet reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of future success and happiness. It is why The Sunday Times is campaigning to:
- Build a community of readers signed up to our ten minutes a day challenge
- Bring books to those most in need by taking bookbanks.co.uk nationwide
- Grow the army of volunteer readers for schools working with Coram Beanstalk
According to the publisher, more than 100 famous writers support its campaign, including many children’s authors: Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen, Katherine Rundell, Cressida Cowell, Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Lauren Child, Jacqueline Wilson, MG Leonard, Julia Donaldson, Joseph Coelho, AF Steadman and the man behind the Funday Times cover, Jamie Smart.
World Book Day author Jamie Smart, the creator of The Phoenix comic’s bestselling Bunny vs Monkey and the man behind our cover, said: “The Funday Times was a coveted treasure when I was at school, a mystical tome of weekly comics all the kids gathered round to read. So back in 2003, when I started drawing my ongoing comic Space Raoul for its centre spread, I always felt such a huge buzz to be a part of Funday Times history. I hand-painted all my comics back then, so it took AGES to create the work. But the thrill of seeing what I'd drawn in print for the first time will always stick with me, and I'm so glad the readers seemed to enjoy it too!
“Children's comics have only had a few stalwarts over the past few decades, including The Phoenix comic and The Beano, and The Funday Times belongs in that list too. It's vital that we offer children only the best, most brilliantest, most amazingest original comics and stories, and The Funday Times is such an important part of that!”
The Funday Times has an illustrious heritage. Launched in 1989 as a weekly children’s supplement in The Sunday Times, designed to engage younger readers with a mix of news, features and puzzles it soon became known for its educational content, big-name contributors and popular comic strips such as Asterix, Thunderbirds and The Simpsons.
According to the publisher, this special edition of The Funday Times includes:
- Exclusive stories and strips from The Phoenix comic, featuring bestselling Bunny vs Monkey and Donut Squad, with a drawing competition to win tickets to Phoenix Fest, a two-day comic extravaganza in Oxford
- The nation’s favourite storyteller Michael Morpurgo has written the first line of a short story competition. Your job is to write a 500-word story on what happens next. The winning story will be published online and the winner will receive books from HarperCollins and tickets to see War Horse at the National Theatre
- An exclusive chapter from Katie Kirby’s soon-to-be-published The Seriously Epic Holiday of Lottie Brooks
- An exclusive new poem, Read, by the children’s author and poet Rashmi Sirdeshpande
- An exclusive extract from World Book Day’s new Roald Dahl-inspired adventure Chaos at the Chocolate Factory
- An exclusive extract from The Adventures of Portly the Otter, new tales by MG Leonard inspired by The Wind in the Willows
- Matt Oldfield, the man behind the Unbelievable Football series, gives his guide to the new superstars you need to look out for at the World Cup — and sets a fiendish quiz
- A day in the life of Jake Harris, the Yoto Daily podcast host. Members of Times+ have the chance to win a Yoto Mini audio player for everyone in their child’s class
- And Where’s Wally? Find the world’s favourite bobble-hatted traveller hiding with his books somewhere in the special issue
For full details of all the competition details and T&Cs click here.
The Sunday Times editor Ben Taylor said: “As a child I could often be found curled up with a book — any book really, but Enid Blyton was a firm favourite. I loved British and American comics too, before graduating to football and pop music magazines and, of course, newspapers. Many of us got our first taste of reading via the pages of The Funday Times, which is why we've brought it back for a special edition.”
The 12-page edition is on sale with The Sunday Times. Online, subscribers can read Lottie Brooks, Charlie's latest adventure and Matt Oldfield’s guide to the World Cup superstars you haven’t heard of, as well as finding out more details on the competitions.
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