Some years I “tell” a few stories.  Somehow this school year flew by and I found myself at the final scheduled storytime for each class.  (I usually stop the weekly stories early in May because of spring bookfairs at two schools and end of the year mahem!)  So I used the last chance to tell rather than read them a story. 

“Mrs. Brandt, where is your book?” many classes asked me as I came into their room. 

“I didn’t bring a book,” was my answer, “but I brought a story.”

I told one of my very favorite stories, and old English folktale “The Three Sillies”.  Steven Kellogg did a picture book of the story, but I much prefer my own version.  The base for my version is rooted in a set of books my mother read aloud when I was young:  “The Family Treasury of Stories” is a three volume set edited by Pauline Rush Evans and published by Doubleday in 1956.  The binding was cheap but I loved those books.  I’m sure I read the stories and poems to myself, also, since I know them all so well.  Early in my library career my mother gave them to me.  (I unpacked them yesterday! – They were in with the Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books!)

But I have told “The Three Sillies” often throughout the years and it is now “my” story.  I have pattern and repetition based on the original, but phrasing and details are my own.  Since it is an old English folktale, I picture old England with cellars, cider, sweethearts, parlors, courting, thatched roofs, villages, and mill ponds.  I throw in minor explainations as I go along to bridge the culture gap, but I work them into the telling.  I also use motions a lot – turning on the tap, running the rope down the chimney, and raking out of the pond.  The universal favorite with the students, however, is the man who runs and tries to jump into his britches.  (Britches – not pants!  Explain the vocabulary if you must, but use the old words and phrases!)  The students truly giggle at the thought of how silly is a stranger who thinks he must jump into his britches.  For the motions there, I use two fingers on one hand as the legs to run and jump, but when the gentleman shows the stranger how he manages getting dressed each morning I actually pantomine putting one leg in at a time, standing up and fastening the britches.  And I end with an unusual phrase – “and if they didn’t live happily ever after, well, then that is another story.” 

I have found that students actually are more attentive to storytelling than to read alouds.  I’m sure there are studies and articles to back up that fact, but I know it to be true by experience.  One of my most enjoyable Master’s classes was Storytelling with Kate McDowell.  (I regret that I missed the opportunity to take the class with Betsy Hearne, but Kate was wonderful!)  Years ago I took a weeklong class in storytelling at Lindenwood in St. Charles, MO with Keith Polette, so I was not new to storytelling.  But I never miss an opportunity to polish the skill…and I don’t practice it nearly enough. So….

…my new school year’s resolution for the fall is less read-aloud, more storytelling!