On June 12th 2026 at the historic Manchester Central Library as part of Manchester City of Literature’s Festival of Libraries, the latest Heartstone Global Story Circle event.took shape opened by Vice Lord Lieutenant Sharman Birtles, MBE, DL, JP on behalf of the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester.
“Good afternoon, everyone. I’m delighted to be here today representing His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant at this event, which launches Story Circles in Kosovo to follow on from the excellent photo documentary, KFOR and Kosovo+25, which has been presented in the UK and now, in an expanded form, in Kosovo. Story Circles take the story to the next generation to demonstrate the need to understand that whatever the nationality, background, faith, or race, we are human beings first and foremost, and we have a common shared experience. We also need to work together constantly to challenge all forms of prejudice, intolerance, and hate, and we must learn to understand that all stories have different perspectives. This project is about all of those points, but it’s also more. It’s about being proud of who you are, respecting others who may seem different, but in the end, you discover are not different from yourself at all. Being welcoming and kind rather than turning a blind eye to people who are in distress and need is the right and proper thing to do. That’s what happened in 1999 at the time of the Kosovo War, and the people of Manchester showed great kindness in welcoming people fleeing from war and conflicts. Some of those who stayed in Manchester and built their lives here are with us today, so welcome to them. Now, for the first time in Kosovo, Story Circles are going to start in which the Heartstone stories, both The Heartstone Odyssey and the ‘KFOR and Kosovo+25’ photo documentary, are being used by children and young people, as they are here and in other countries, to bring people together with the starting point being an engaging and powerful story.
Now, for the first time in Kosovo, Story Circles are going to start in which the Heartstone stories, both The Heartstone Odyssey and the ‘KFOR and Kosovo+25’ photo documentary, are being used by children and young people, as they are here and in other countries, to bring people together with the starting point being an engaging and powerful story.
Stories are so very important. All cultures have used them over centuries to put across important messages, to build empathy and understanding. This is also why libraries are so important and where many different stories are found. It is therefore appropriate that this event is taking place as part of Manchester’s ‘Festival of Libraries’ in our wonderful Central Library, making the connection with the National Library of Kosova and the National Museum of Kosova, where the ‘KFOR and Kosovo+25’ exhibition is taking shape, together with those who will be leading the first Story Circles.
This project will make Kosova part of the ‘Global Story Circle’, the network which Heartstone is building across the world where these and other Heartstone stories are being used. Further connections are being made today with the Heartstone Story Circles in Alabama, in the USA at the Rosa Parks Museum, which is also a library with a unique collection of documents and artifacts connected with the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King.
We’re also connecting with Queensland, Australia, where the ‘library’ is actually Don Rowlands, who is Chief Ranger of Munga Thirri National Park, an Aboriginal elder and keeper of the Dreamtime stories, and those who will be involved in the Story Circles there, particularly Nisa Tilney, who is going to lead the very first Story Circle in Birdsville in the Australian Outback.
These connections make this an even greater and unique occasion, and I would like to invite both of those people to this event.
It’s an important time to have a project such as this, which brings people together across all communities, challenges intolerance, and celebrates our common humanity through story.
The fact that all of this is being initiated here in Manchester and with the involvement of Greater Manchester local authorities is particularly special. Therefore, my thanks, together with those of the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, must go to Heartstone for initiating this here. And in doing so, spreading their message of challenging prejudice and intolerance, and simply recognizing common human experiences which need to be acknowledged universally. It is a perfect opportunity to come together, to share, build dialogue, and to show compassion.
So before I finish, I’ve been asked to say some thank you’s on behalf of Heartstone. There are a number, but of course, that doesn’t mean they are any less sincere. So Heartstone would like to thank Manchester City of Literature, Read Manchester, Kosova Ministry of Culture, the National Library of Kosova, the National Museum of Kosova, Donna Beisel, the Director at Rosa Parks Museum, Don Rowlands and Anita Tilney in Queensland, Australia, and particularly all the schools who have participated in the Story Circle project, who are here today from across Greater Manchester. You are all very, very welcome. It’s lovely to see you all, and I thank you all for coming. I hope you enjoy the afternoon.
Cheryl Pridgeon, above, Read Manchester Hub Manager, followed explaining the value of Story Circles in the region. She said:
“I won’t take long because I know you haven’t come here to listen to me or any speeches, but to celebrate your involvement in Story Circle. So yes, I work for Read Manchester, and I also work for Manchester Libraries, and when we started having conversations with Sitakumari, we were so excited. We knew that we wanted to work together and bring Story Circles to Manchester and to Greater Manchester. Some of the schools here today may have been involved in our ‘See Myself in Books’ project, which is about promoting representation in books through stories and building understanding and empathy of others across all of our communities. So all of the things that Sitakumari and the things that you’ve been working on with Story Circles really resonates with the work that we’ve been doing through libraries. Thank you so much for coming today and battling the rain to still come to what promises to be an amazing event. So, enjoy on behalf of Manchester Libraries and Read Manchester. Have a brilliant session and thank you for coming. “
Sitakumari then performed excerpts of ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’ in her role as Heartstone’s principal dancer/storyteller. Pose above: ‘Listening to a Story’
Starting from Chapter 1 and then moving to the history of the Heartstone and how it was broken in India in the 1700’s, the single fragment arriving in Britain on board a tall ship carried by the mouse, Sailvoyage Stonekeeper, his journey across Britain to find a safe place to place the piece and the connection with Chandra, the dancer in our time and where the story begins. All the children from the Greater Manchester Story Circles are reading the book and after this event, new Story Circles in other parts of the world are starting, making this the latest ‘Global Story Circle’ event. Alongside the book, Story Circles use two additional story components – images and narrative from the ‘KFOR and Kosovo +25’ photodoumentary and a selection of images and stories from Cura Guardian, Heartstone’s environmental arm. The three components provide the foundation for discussion by the children leading to the production of their own creative exhibitions.
Riad Hoxha, above, joined the event from the National Library of Kosova in Pristina. He is part of the team leading the start of Story Circles in Kosova in September:
‘Hello everyone. My name is Riad, and I come from a small town in Kosova called Podujeva. I am currently a Master’s student in History, a subject that I have enjoyed very much since I was a child. At university, we study a lot about history of the United Kingdom and United States, especially considering how closely connected these two countries have been throughout history. However, as a young country, Kosova should not be left out of this story, because here in Kosovo, we are also great admirers of the United Kingdom and United States. In almost every neighborhood, we have US and United Kingdom flags. What’s very interesting is that we also have statues of the United Kingdom’s ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair and also President Clinton. When you kids grow up and have the opportunity to travel independently, I encourage you to visit Kosova and see them for yourself.
I was involved in the ‘KFOR and Kosovo +25’ exhibition through a connection I have with a British organization and American programs. I have been part of Manchester Aid to Kosovo, who have been operating in Kosovo since 2000, I think even a bit before. They have helped many people in Kosovo as a charity organization, including a girl who was seriously injured during the war. They took her from Kosovo and sent her to Britain and helped her to recover. Today, she’s one of the most voted politicians in Kosovo. She’s also the Minister of Culture now. Her name is Saranda Bogujevci, and she also served for a while as a speaker of the parliament.
So I was also connected to the project through some of my friends in the American Peace Corps program, who live and work here in Kosova , some of them in Podujeva. Since my childhood, I have felt a strong connection to both the United Kingdom and United States. As you may not know, I was born just after the war in Kosovo and growing up, almost everything discussed in my home was about NATO, KFOR, United States, United Kingdom, and other allies that we had during the war.
I believe that many children in Kosova grew up hearing the same stories same as me. I will be helping to bring Story Circles to Kosova in the autumn. I would love to talk a bit about the book, but my copy of “The Heartstone Odyssey” hasn’t arrived yet. I’m very happy that this is happening with the schools in Kosova.
So thank you very much for all of you listening to me, and I hope we see you again in the autumn.”
Donna Beisel, above, is the Director of the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama and joined the event:
“First of all, thank you for including me in this, and I do come from Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the civil rights movement in the United States. At our summer camp, we incorporated “The Heartstone Odyssey” and the Story Circle to make the connections with the hate, bigotry, xenophobia that Chandra experiences to the experiences of primarily Black and brown citizens in the United States through segregation and the civil rights movement.”
The Story Circle Donna led at the Rosa Parks Museum in the summer was a great success. The story prompted discussion and brought out how similar these experiences are for other cultural groups beyond the world the young people there are familiar with. They also used the ‘KFOR and Kosovo +25’ exhibition images, bringing them into contact with a conflict which arose due to interethnic hatred. This story helped build their knowledge of how images tell a story, how images shape our perceptions and the need for integrity and honesty in telling a visual story. They created a powerful exhibition presenting their ideas which they shared with Heartstone.
Nita Tilney, above, is the Principal at Birdsville State School in Outback Australia, Queensland and joined the event from there:
“We are almost in the middle of the continent of Australia. We live between a sandy desert and a stony desert. We have 100 people in our town. Like Riad, it takes a long time to get things by mail. We have two planes that come in twice a week to bring our mail, so everyone is very excited when they arrive. We got our books yesterday. We don’t have very many children in our school. We have seven children but there are children that live about 100 kilometers away who will be on a station, and they do all their lessons on the computer. When we start our Story Circles, they will actually drive in, and they will be part of the Story Circle with us. Most of our children are indigenous. In fact, their great-grandad is one of the donators of the stories that you hold. So we are very excited to have that connection with you and with him”
Surinder Sahota, above, a friend of Heartstone for many years, joined from London where she leads the Story Circle at the Croydon Gurdwara:
Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Surinder Sahota. Basically, I’m a trustee of an organization tackling hate crime called RACCA, and also a trustee of a Sikh place of worship, the Gurdwara in Croydon. I came into contact with Sitakumari and Lorna John, the teacher at Oasis Academy who has run Story Circles with her young people for several years, who is also on this call, basically to lead the Heartstone Story Circle in the gurdwara. We have a variety of children from different ethnic backgrounds and communities in our schools but when we do this in the gurdwara, we’re talking about one community, and it was unbelievable the experience that those children had and how it impacted on them that we weren’t alone. They weren’t one individual. It was a group of people from the same community all facing the same issues. And it’s actually encouraged them to be stronger and more powerful in what they say and what they believe in, and even encouraged them to talk to others and identify issues that people might not understand, including other children because they don’t have that perspective, they don’t have that knowledge.
So the storybook, “The Hearthstone Odyssey,” is so powerful that I have tried to escalate it to our education minister, and we’re going through that to try and see if we can have a weekly Story Circle session in our schools as part of the curriculum that would help not just a group of children, but the whole school, and then it escalates further into the community. We would then have beautiful children in the end, going into secondary school aware of what is right and what is wrong, and understand hate and the prejudice that people might inflict on them due to social media, due to the news, due to group gatherings and so forth that they’re seeing all day.
Lorna, who has also joined this event today, is at Oasis Academy. She’s been delivering Story Circle since year seven. Those kids are now 16 years of age, and it changed their lives. Now, that is a powerful thing to happen. What you have started is something we hope is going to spread. It is starting in Kosova, in Australia, in America, and it’s going to get bigger. Thank you all for being part of this.
I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself, and keep going with your Story Circles and keep reading the book. Thank you all for being here today.”
Below: children from Story Circles across Greater Manchester came together for this event. Sitakumari, as principal dancer/storyteller for Heartstone, performed excerpts from ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’:
So what did the children think of their involvement in Story Circles and the afternoon?
Here are just four comments:
STORY CIRCLE 1:
‘The children really enjoyed the opportunity to visit and see ‘the real life Chandra’ in their eyes. They were particularly fascinated and impressed with the ability to tell stories with the shapes and movements of your hands. Linked with the book, the children really enjoyed hearing about other people’s experiences that might differ from their own and delving deeper into why people behave the way they do ,towards others and the message they are trying to convey. Since reading the book, they have been more aware of graffiti around Manchester, often pointing it out to me and discussing among themselves why they think people have done that and the message it is trying to spread. A real take away for me, is that I have seen them address their friends, who might be displaying a subtle laugh, look when they notice someone, who might display differently them themselves….’
STORY CIRCLE 2:
‘Through our work on The Heartstone Odyssey, the children explored important themes of identity, racism, discrimination and belonging. They particularly enjoyed connecting with people from all over the world, which helped them develop a greater understanding and appreciation of different cultures and experiences. The children created some fantastic artwork inspired by the book’s themes, using art as a way to express their thoughts and challenge racism and discrimination. Their creativity allowed them to immerse themselves fully in the story, deepening their understanding of the characters and the powerful messages within the text….’
STORY CIRCLE 3:
‘The children loved the exciting adventure and found the story full of mystery and surprises. Lots of the children enjoyed the characters of the mice and could relate to them. Many said they wanted to keep reading because they were eager to discover what would happen next. Some of our less able children did struggle with the language of the story and the plot had to be explained to them separately by a Teaching Assistant.
The animal characters, especially the mice, were favourites with many children. They described them as brave, loyal, funny and easy to care about. Some children said the friendships between the characters made the story feel hopeful and generally better about the difficult world that we live in.
The shields that the children designed gave them a feeling of uniqueness and how individual and special they are. Each child could express through their shield their thoughts and what was important to them.
Favourite Themes
Many children noticed the importance of:
- Friendship and teamwork.
- Courage when facing difficult situations.
- Standing up for what is right.
- Treating everyone fairly and with kindness.
Some older readers recognised that the story encourages people to respect others regardless of their background and appreciated this message.
Overall Response
The overall response was very positive. The children particularly enjoyed the debates they had after reading the first couple of chapters. As a teacher the most powerful part for me was how the children could empathise with each other even though they had many differing viewpoints obviously heavily influenced by home circumstance. The children appreciated the messages about courage, friendship, kindness and standing together against unfairness.
STORY CIRCLE 4:
As a project, I believe Story Circles should be embedded into every school in the country given the hostility towards minority groups that we now see worryingly becoming part of our daily news.
In terms of my school in North Manchester, we are a predominantly white British cohort but the themes within The Heartstone Odyssey we linked with our demographic and the lives of our children. Locally we have hotels housing migrants which we linked with the attitude towards Chandra. It was interesting in class discussions hearing the genuine concern and empathy our children had for migrants and refugees. I believe these discussions should be had in every classroom in the country.
This event has led to a very exciting and unexpected outcome. Heartstone is now working with Libraries Connected and Libraries Rising, reaching libraries across the UK, including Children’s Libraries, as a new partner to help set up the first nationwide libraries Story Circle project building on what has happened here. This will culminate again at Manchester Central Library in the summer of 2027. Also following out of this event, ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’ and Heartstone Story Circles have been endorsed by the National Year of Reading 2026.
Also following out of this event, The Heartstone Odyssey has been endorsed by the National Year of Reading 2026.
OUR GRATEFUL THANKS TO MANCHESTER CENTRAL LIBRARY AND MANCHESTER CITY OF LITERATURE FOR HOSTING THIS FIRST HEARTSTONE GLOBAL STORY CIRCLE EVENT AS PART OF THE FESTIVAL OF LIBRARIES 2026.
