Abstract
Stories have an important role in children’s cognitive and emotional development, enhancing their imagination and helping them to make sense of real-life situations. Today, by embedding digital technologies into physical spaces and objects, the storytelling experience can be enhanced by embracing interactive characteristics in order to support children’s imagination and give rise to open-ended play experiences. Masal is an interactive storytelling stuffed toy constructed with e-textiles and an open-source technology for children to co-create stories. It aims at fostering creative thinking and empathy towards a different culture through a collaborative construction of a story. This paper addresses the design and prototyping process of Masal and the storytelling sessions done with three groups of participants, varying from children (3–8 years) to adults. It represents the qualitative results obtained from these sessions reflecting on how an interactive soft toy can enhance children’s experience and imagination in storytelling, and above all can create a bridge between two cultures through co-creation of a story.