A little while ago, the wonderful humans of Tales by Mail sent me an email asking if I’d like to receive one of their boxes and I JUMPED at the chance.

For those of you who don’t know Tales by Mail, they are a brilliant company selling bi-monthly subscription boxes and a brilliant podcast for 8-12 year olds. As you all know, I’m a primary school teacher (Year 6) so this is the perfect thing for me – my kids are in the middle of that age range, so the products, the books and the podcast are perfect for my kids!

They have a range of different subscriptions available:

• Solo subscriptions – you can do box by box subscriptions, or buy multiple boxes and save money.
• Sibling subscription – you get double the amount of gifts in your box for two children! Again, these can be bought month by month, or subscribe for multiple boxes and save money!

I was lucky enough to be sent their August box, which was an absolute delight to be honest! It was jam packed with goodies and fun… plus TWO books!

It came in this gorgeous box (which I think I am going to be repurposing for school and make this into like a travelling story for my class, so we all read the story and have fun!), which I just adore. The stuff inside was all gorgeously wrapped in orange tissue paper, so it kept the secrets going for longer – we love a bit of anticipation!

When I opened the box, I saw this amazing array of goodies. Obviously, you can see the books that I received in my box, but I’ll come to them later! The WONDERFUL booklet of activities is something that I think really makes this box special. There’s a whole host of different pages in this booklet – there’s pages from the authors and pages to fill in. There’s stuff to read and stuff to do: the perfect mix for me! I will be putting this into my classroom for the children to read alongside these books!

Inside the box, was a whole host goodies as well as the activity booklet! My FAVOURITE thing about this book is this bookmark (at least I think it’s a bookmark ha!) It’s wooden and it is SO beautifully illustrated that I fell in love with it instantly. I love how much on theme it is and how beautifully it is done. It’s really high quality and it feels like it’ll last forever (have I started using it in a book yet, you ask, no of course I haven’t… it’s still in the box being safe haha). Other goodies in the box included this gorgeous badge, which has gone onto my lanyard already. There was a few other bookish goodies too – and who doesn’t love a good bookish goodie?!

The two books which came in my box are two books I’ve actually read already, which is PERFECT because it means they can go STRAIGHT into my classroom library! But not only were there 2 books, but they BOTH had book plates (I BLOODY LOVE A BOOK PLATE). Us bookish folk love a signed piece of bookish love. I’ll be putting the book plates in these books for the classroom library because it always feels extra special for the kids if they see a book is signed… plus it’s a great conversation starter too!

I adored this box, so so much. It was filled with goodness and joy. Getting post is always great, and when you get something as glorious as this through the post it’s like a little treat to yourself. Whether you’re a parent with children of this age, someone who wants to treat a little one in your life to this, or you’re just an adult who wants to read more books, this box is so bloody worth the money. As a teacher, I think this is a brilliant way to get books into your collection!

A massive thank you to the people at Tales by Mail for sending me one of your boxes in the post. It was an absolute delight and I know that the kids in my class are going to adore the books!

If you’d like to know more about the boxes, would like to see one of the previous boxes, or are interested in signing up for a subscription for yourself/your class/a kid you know, check out the Tales by Mail website.

Do you subscribe to any subscription boxes?
Have you got any recommendations for subscription boxes?
What’s been your favourite thing you’ve received in a box?

Talk to me in the comments, or on twitter (@eenalol). I’d love to hear about your thoughts on subscription boxes!

S x