One Third Stories Avis 

I’ve asked via several channels (email and social media) for samples of two languages so I can see what it’s like and choose which language we’d like fo go with. I’ve been told several times the links will be sent but they don’t arrive.

I’m seeing here that the customer service is patchy.

Disappointed, as I love the idea of this and would like to sign up. But this experience so far as made me hesitant to sign up.

I had £50 taken from my bank account and did not receive any extra books.

We have loved these. I play the stories in the car to get the pronunciation down, and then I’ve read the books to my sons at bedtime. My older son started the subscription at around 4 years, and I would say he wasn’t quite ready for the activity booklets until this year, at 5.5, when he has started kindergarten. I put them aside to pull out later and make the content fresh again. He just started a Spanish immersion kindergarten, and our One Third Stories subscription is in French, so I’m giving him some time to get dialed into Spanish (although we have done OPOL in Spanish since birth), before I reintroduce these stories again. I think they will continue to appeal to him over time. For a long time his favorite phrase to repeat was “une toute petite tête! » from Sleuth Sloth because it sounded fun and silly to him. If there were more books that gradually included more and more French until the entire book were in French, we would most definitely subscribe. I think the concept is very engaging. My French is intermediate, I have studied it for a long time and spent a month in France taking a class at about the B2/C1 level, am doing Duolingo one lesson per day, etc, but I don’t feel totally comfortable just reading to my sons in French with the exception of a few simple books we have like Je suis petite mois? For that reason I love One Third Stories. I put the stories on a Yoto card as well, although that gets less play time than other cards we have. We did the whole subscription (Christmas present request from their uncle) plus the last four books that don’t come with an activity booklet.

'The books help you learn different languages and it's very fun. The activity books were lots of fun as well. It was very good to have an audiobook version because you could listen them straight away.' Zoe age 7

I would and have recommend One Third Stories to other parents. The combination of books and audiobooks has been super useful and the audiobooks are well done. The audiobooks in particular pair well with the Yoto device so the kids can choose to listen to them on their own. Kids keep asking them to be read to them, many months after the last one was received. Activities were too old for my kiddos so we didn't get any value out of them. The stories themselves are terribly written.

Ordered a 6-month subscription in September 2023 but only received materials for the first month. Despite multiple requests, a refund for the remaining 5 months has not been processed. Additionally, a renewal charge has been applied, taking more money despite unresolved issues. The website errors also prevent subscription cancellation. Poor service and lack of resolution prompt concern.

Not as described. The tag is “books that start in English and end in (insert language) ” - really it’s only a few words per book. The bilingual words chosen are also quite random and not very helpful, eg. Hot air dispenser was one the words recently. Finally, while some stories can be sweet others are not engaging and sometimes truly inappropriate.

Excellent stories, the themes are spot on for what my son is interested in and the stories are well written and very fun! The activities are engaging, my son loves the flash cards and they've really got him enthusiastic about learning a language. I know contextual learning can be better but the direct translations have given him a confidence boost at speaking so he's more willing to try to understand me when my mum speaks French to him. I've been putting the audiobooks on his Toniebox, too, he listens to them every night!

Lovely stories and good way to for younger children to learn a bit of a foreign language. Great customer service!

Thoroughly enjoyed the boxes, no issues at all.

I want to like this company as I like the idea of teaching a language through stories but I'm having trouble after purchasing a sibling pack that hasn't arrived after the specified date. I've tried to email and Facebook message this company and have been completely ignored. I'm getting to the point where I'll need to go down the PayPal complaint reimbursement route as the company have taken my money and not provided a service. Most disappointed and thought it prudent to warn other potential customers.