This article presents a way to integrate storytelling with the teaching of science: by making graphic novels. It describes how gifted 9- and 10-year-old students at the author's school researched the elements found in the human body and then created illustrated poems tracing the entire 'history' of individual atoms. The article explores the ways in which writing stories can support meaningful scientific communication, facilitate connection with the natural world and build sound understanding of complex topics, particularly those involving microscopic and massively macroscopic processes in secondary school curricula. The possible origins of the scientific community's disregard for stories are also addressed. [This article was first published in "Primary Science" n157 (see EJ1252153) and is reproduced here with slight adaptations for the author's secondary audience.]