Storytelling has its public side and with World Book Day 2013 coming up on March 7th, it’s interesting to note how – it always happens in my experience – the number of storytelling invitations from schools goes up. I wish schools were as keen to have storytelling regularly all the year round. Yet it’s great to see the association between books and storytelling being made.

The private side

But storytelling has its private side too. I mentioned family bonds last week. On Thursday this week, I got a fresh experience of how magically these can start to arise.

Thursday was Valentine’s Day. At about 3 p.m. I went round to the home of the former wife of one of my former long-term foster-sons. If that seems a bit complicated, it doesn’t matter. She and her family are still very much part of my world and I’d promised her 6-year-old granddaughter I’d be round to read her a story. The little girl loves books and stories and is an attentive listener. She loves talking about the stories and joining in. It’s great.

This time, as well as some books the little girl probably hadn’t seen before – including Sunshine by Jan Ormerod who sadly recently passed away – I took the wherewithal for making some Valentine hearts like the one I wrote about last week.

What happened? Not at all what I’d expected. Two more grandchildren also arrived to visit, neither of whom I’d seen for some time. One is a little girl aged just three. The other is her brother aged five who, last time I saw him, was a bit of a handful. Yet even then I’d noticed how engaged he’d become when I told them Mrs Wiggle and Mrs Waggle. Now I was in for a bigger surprise.

We begin

We began with one of the books I’d brought, Little Frog by Christopher Gunson. All three children hopped around, croaking with the frog and roaring with the lion, and became completely involved. But afterwards as I began making one of my Valentine hearts, the two girls ran off, chasing each other as children do. The little boy stayed and quickly asked for another story. ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I’ve got a Valentine story and this Valentine heart is in it.’

So out I came with one of my favourite traditional tales – adapted of course for the occasion. This was the story about Fred the Fisherman (as I call him) who was so desperate to ask his girlfriend to marry him that he decided he’d wade across the flooded river to her house on the opposite bank. The story involves a lot of frogs and I’ve put it at the bottom of this Blog for your entertainment. Suffice it to say at this point that the little boy listened intently and when we got to the end, he said very firmly The End. Then he immediately said, ‘Have you got another Valentine story?’ ‘Yes,’ I replied, racking my brains.

So then I told a lovely African tale which happens to involve a frog as well – I suppose the frog connection is what made me think of it. This was the story which ends with the Princess of the Moon climbing down a silver ladder to come and marry the Prince of the Earth.

And what was the child’s response to this? ‘Have you got another Valentine story?’

‘I’m not sure,’ I said, ‘I’ll have to think.’

‘A Christmas story?’

‘Yes,’ I laughed, and since I thought a different type of story would be a good idea at this stage, I told my Christmas version of Going On A Bear-Hunt.

We go on

‘And have you got an Easter story?’

‘Well,’ I said, ‘People give Easter eggs at Easter and I’ve got a story about an egg. Actually, five eggs.’

So I told the story Two Birds in a Beard.

‘What’s next?’

‘Drawing,’ I said firmly, reaching for the paper I’d brought. And with a will the little boy immediately set about making a drawing of the old man with a long beard in his cave and Father Bird flying off in search of worms. When he’d finished, we talked about his excellent drawing, him retelling bits of the story. Then suddenly the girls were back and all the children were loudly asking for another story. I reached for the books I’d brought.

‘No,’ said the boy urgently, ‘can’t we have another of those made-up stories?’

And on…

Since Easter had already become a theme and children like Easter bunnies, I used the rabbit-link to move on to Rabbit’s Lucky Escape. Immediately afterwards, they all wanted paper for drawing. So now there were drawings all round.

And with a bit more talking and some retelling, that’s just about where we ended. As the children ran off to play, their grandmother made this comment: ‘I’ve never seen him so calm and involved.’

She also said, ‘Did you notice how he snuggled up to you when you were telling the stories?’

I certainly had.

Family bonds ?

The other day I was talking about family bonds on the phone with Steve Killick, the clinical psychologist and storyteller who has recently put together a guide on storytelling for foster-carers. On the phone, he made the point that just the simple telling of stories creates communication and forges bonds. I agree. In a previous similar guide that I wrote for the Welsh foster-carers’ network, I wrote about my own experience, many years ago now, with the two boys who had come into my life as my long-term foster-sons. For the younger one in particular, the storytelling and the books and the reading at bedtime still remain one of his strongest memories of the five years that he and his brother lived with us. Family bonds? All these years later – and with foster-grandchildren coming out of my ears – I can say a very firm yes.

Fred the Fisherman (contd):

So Fred the Fisherman decided he wasn’t going to be put off from going to see his girlfriend. The river was flooded but he’d wade across it. But to make sure he wouldn’t drown (because like lots of fishermen Fred couldn’t swim) he called out first to his friends, the little frogs who lived by the side of the river. ‘How deep is it out there?’ The little frogs replied, ‘Ankle-deep’. (And of course you have to say that in a very froggy croak.)

Fred stepped out into the river but soon the water was getting quite a bit deeper. So he called out to the bigger frogs who lived further out: ‘How deep is it out there?’ The bigger frogs replied, ‘Knee-deep.’ Fred went on.

Further out, the water getting still deeper, Fred called out the same thing again and the yet-bigger frogs called back, Belly-deep. So Fred went on. But when the river water was nearly up to his chin, he started to get a bit worried and he called out to the Great Big Bull-Frog who lives in the middle of the river, ‘How deep is it out there?’ The Great Big Bull-Frog replied in a big deep voice:

You better go round. You better go round.

So that’s when Fred turned back. But he was still determined to see his girlfriend. So after returning to his side of the river, he walked all the way along to where there was a bridge and, after crossing the bridge, he walked all the way back along the other side of the river until he came to his girlfriend’s house. When he got there, absolutely soaking wet, he offered her his Valentine’s heart that he’d made her and asked her if she’d be his wife.

Yes, Yes, Yes! 

She gave him a great big kiss. And she didn’t mind a bit that the Valentine heart he’d made her had gone all soggy.

So Fred the Fisherman and his girlfriend got married and after that they had 6 children and in due course each of their 6 children had 6 grandchildren.

And now every year Fred the Fisherman makes each of them a Valentine heart to show them how much he loves them.

The End

P.S. You can find the stories of Two Birds in a Beard and Rabbit’s Lucky Escape in my book Stories for Young Children and how to tell them which can be purchased direct from my website (just click on My Publications).  

P.S.S. This week, I added onto my website another track from the CD that accompanies Stories for Young Children. Click on Listen to a Story.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2013 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Adults, Early years, Folktales, Follow-up activities, Personal experience, Props and Resources, Seasonal Tales, Storytelling in Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.