• Gladly Jumping Through Hoops by Carol Birch

    Gladly Jumping Through Hoops by Carol Birch 3/13/2022 The following remarks build on my essay published in School Library Journal’s UP FOR DISCUSSION column in 2007. SLJ is a place where children’s book people like authors, illustrators, editors, book designers, publishers, and publicists gather with teachers and librarians. Unfortunately, the invitation to begin discussing how we might […]

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  • WHY I TELL TWAIN

    WHY I TELL TWAIN © 2021 By Steve Daut After I had been telling stories for a few years, I decided to tell “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”, a Mark Twain story that my mom used to read to me when I was a kid. I quickly realized that the original version would […]

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  • Beyond the Printed Page: Telling Literary Stories

    Beyond the Printed Page: Telling Literary Stories © 2022 Maria LoBiondo   When you read a story that touches you deeply, it’s hard to let go of that first rush of “I want to tell this!” That’s how I felt early in my storytelling journey when I read Tomie dePaola’s picture book, “The Clown of […]

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  • The Healing Aspects of Storytelling

    The Healing Aspects of Storytelling ©2021 Christine Chew, PhD   It should not be a far stretch for one to recognize the therapeutic benefits inherent in the use of stories.  After all, storytelling is one of the oldest and most powerful teaching and learning methods used by humans.  And who, as a child, did not […]

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  • BRIDGING THE GENERATIONS ONE STORY AT A TIME

    BRIDGING THE GENERATIONS ONE STORY AT A TIME by Andrea Lovett and Karen Chace “When an elder dies a library burns down.” – African Proverb

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  • Humor is a Frog

    Humor is a Frog ©2021 Michael Perry   I love to laugh. Some say that I have a great sense of humor. But what does that mean? Is humor a ‘sense’ like vision or hearing? Is it a trait like having dark eyes or being tall? Are we born with it, or can it be […]

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  • My Folktale Journey

    My Folktale Journey © 2021 Sara deBeer   Once upon a time (back in 1977) when I was a freshman in college, I took a Children’s Literature class and first learned about storytelling. That summer (as well as the next one), I went home to Albany, NY and rode around the greater Albany area in […]

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  • That Is Not A Healing Message: The Stories We Tell Ourselves

    That Is Not A Healing Message: The Stories We Tell Ourselves  By Galen Brandt ©2021 One of my dearest friends and neighbors is a brilliant, wildly artistically talented, profoundly wise, infinitely kind, keenly discerning, thoughtful, generous, funny, loving and very beautiful 78-year-old woman.  She has been unusually beautiful her entire life, and still is.   She […]

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  • Storytelling @ the Library

    Storytelling @ the library ©Madelyn Folino I’m a storyteller who gets hired to present programs in public libraries and I’m a library director who hires storytellers to present programs in my library. As a teller, I want a fair fee for my time and talent, as well as for my guild members when I’m asked […]

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  • My Greek American Storytelling Odyssey

    My Greek American Storytelling Odyssey By Barbara Aliprantis, Storyteller/Mentor/Teaching Artist My Greek American journey began in a small fishing village on the Aegean island of Paros. Just shy of three years old, I left my beloved home with my mother, my nine-year-old brother Yianni, and my four-year-old sister Calypso. On that day, the narrow, white-washed, […]

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