Thank heavens for Folktales

Last night's Story Swap at Godfrey Daniels was so much fun.  The usual suspects trotted out great stories.  I told Singing Together from one of Margaret Read MacDonald's collections.  My little camcorder died with storytelling videos trapped inside.  Technology is a blessing and a CURSE!!!!

I so wanted to share Bob Heffelfinger's version of Jack and the Beanstalk - funny and fun!, Tom Egan's convincing first attempt at an Irish accent with "The Hag's Brown Leather Bag" and Ingrid Bohn's engrossing telling of "The Acorn Tree'.  I didn't catch Gerry's story, "Brian Anderson", about passing a good deed along, or Joe's dramatic retelling of a Jack London story because I forgot I had the camcorder in my bag.  (So sad to have an older brain.) That is the reason I missed Chaz Kiernan's version of the Scandinavian story, "The Great White Cat".  Every time Chaz tells this story it gets better and better.

Next month, LV Storyteller members will audition for the opening slot at StoryFUSION during the Story Swap.  We are talking powerful and talented tellers trotting out their best stuff for FREE.  You have to be there.  The date should be February 8th.  I'll remind you.

Has anyone else noticed how many novels for young people include folktales and stories?  In Joanne Rocklin's The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook, the main character helps her younger brother deal with their elderly cat's illness by telling stories of the cat's five former lives.  The stories reflect what is going in their lives and help the reader understand the family and neighborhood dynamics.  The storytelling tradition was one the kids learned from their deceased Dad and it even included a trade mark gesture that signaled that a story was about to begin.  I LOVED this! The book comes out in the Spring, so put it on your to-read list.

Books like Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, Cinder by Marissa Meyer and last year's  A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz all owe their existence to fairy tales and folklore.  I love the little heading on Marissa Meyer's blog.  "It always starts with 'Once upon a time....'.  Yes, it does.

Thanksgiving stories

Do you have a favorite story about Thanksgiving?  Something that happened at the table?  Something that happened on that day?  Or, do you have a folktale that reminds you of the joy of a grateful heart? One story that I love to tell during this season is the Japanese story, "Roly-Poly Rice Ball".  I found this story in Margaret Read McDonald's Twenty Tellable Tales.

The story has a common theme. One woodcutter is rewarded simply because he shared his lunch willingly with someone and was grateful for the gift he received.  His neighbor is punished for demanding a similar reward and showing bad grace when he received it.

The greedy are often ungrateful and the ungrateful are likely to be greedy.  The grateful, on the other hand, understand how to accept a gift and how to share it. 

My apple pie looked every bit as good as this!

We spent this Thanksgiving Day with friends, not family.  I was fighting a head cold and I avoided my immune-compromised father (chemotherapy) and my tiny newborn granddaughter for that reason.  (I did break down and take the last of the apple pie to my son and his wife but I sat as far away as I could stand it from the baby so I wouldn't breathe on her.)  Thanksgiving Day was a lovely day, warm and sunny, and spending it with my husband, my good friend and her husband and their two wonderful and goofy dogs was a blessing.

That said, I so missed the hustle and bustle of the holiday - which we have shared with our son, his wife and her family for several years now.  So I invited that crew and a few other people for Drop By for Pie.  It was last minute inspiration and Thanksgiving weekend is NOT a good weekend for last minute invitations.  But the people who appreciate my pie the most showed up. I got my baking urges out without adding significantly to my girth or that of my husband and our pie-loving friends got their pie!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and spent it with someone you love!