The me show - all me, all the time - me me me

I don't know if anyone out there has noticed, but in my mind this is a place where I deposit fragments of my storytelling life. This past summer I got photographed a lot for some reason. I told Stephanie it was because of the great haircut she gave me!


This was taken by a co-worker for a newsletter:


I also happened to be handy when it was time for summer publicity.


Another co-worker took this.
I don't really like it - I wasn't feeling groovy that day:



Here's the Farmer's Market in July. This one is my favorite. Click on the photo to enlarge it and take a few moments to look at each and every child. The magic was happening at that very moment and the photographer captured it. This is why I do what I do:

And the big finish...

Both of the Farmer's Market photos were taken by photographer Phyllis Groner.

Last but not least, here I am in late July. The article is less than fun to read (sorry, Joseph - and it's not a "red chest", it's a Story Wagon!) but I liked the photos.

So - pretty glamorous, huh? Just kidding.

I need you to know that there are librarians all over the country who are doing great work with children and literacy. They read more books than I do so that they can make very personalized reading recommendations to children and their families; they keep up with current technologies to educate their patrons and colleagues; many devote themselves to disadvantaged children in libraries with very few resources. Most of those librarians are unphotographed, unsung heroes who are better than me me me.

Dance Ditties

New Wave sound, cute guy, festive medievalesqueness (what's not to like?):

(better view here)


Still the best girl power anthem on the planet ("I want to be the one to walk in the sun"!):

(better view here)


Oh Kate! This woman can do no wrong. Check out the whirling dervishes that first appear around 1:28 ("Don't ever think that you can't change the past and the future."):

(again here)

Beautiful

Our weekend of fun:




More to come...

Me & My Great Grandfather

Here we are in 1966 visiting Grampie and Nettie at their cottage in Portage Lake, Maine. We had just been picking raspberries. I, of course, am having a different experience than everyone else is. Where IS she?

I guess I'm thinking about Portage Lake today because my parents and I will be traveling there together in July. I don't remember it very well and my father has graciously consented to escort me there for a visit. And of course we can't go north without Mommy. Road trip!

Notice that I am smoking a pipe just like Grampie. Rumor has it that he was also a bit of a storyteller.

Genetics. Go figure.

Listen to Hans, LeMans

OK-I know that my rhymes are getting really lame...anyway, here is an interview with children's author and illustrator Hans Wilhelm, in which he is SO articulate about the value of REAL fairytales - in all their gory glory - in the lives of children. Yay!

Hans Wilhem interviewed by Christina Haskins from Hans Wilhelm on Vimeo.

I've Got the Power, Flower!

Today the dandelion is my favorite flower. I had a chance to tell an Ojibwa dandelion story from Anne Pellowski's Hidden Stories in Plants today. I've been wanting to tell it for a long time. I'm not inclined to transcribe it tonight, but storyteller Fran Stallings retells it here and gives it pretty good alternative attribution, too. The tricky bit for me was that I wanted to tell this story with props. I wanted to have on hand both a fresh, young, yellow dandelion and a gray dandelion gone to seed. Dandelions only last a day after you pick them, so they have to be picked on the day you will use them. Usually the patches of flowers I find on storytime day are either all yellow or all gray, but today I found both together! Over ripeness is the other problem. Oftentimes you will pick a gray puff and it will be very delicate and the seeds will all blow away. But today was PERFECT! Today the three or four gray-headed girls that I found were not yet too ripe so I was able to pick and transport them with most of the seeds intact, and the fresh yellow flowers were tall and at their most beautiful because no one has mowed their lawns yet. And to top it off, little yellow-haired Alison called out, "Can I hold it?" so I had a golden-haired maiden who stood in the front of the audience and held a dandelion during the story. Thanks, story gods!

I also brought some bleeding hearts picked fresh from my garden--pink and white both--had a lovely time sharing my bleeding heart obsession!

I'm Homa, Roma!

Julia and I visited Sarah in Rome and it was fabuloso. Wanna see some pictures? I'm on Flickr here (no account needed) and Julia is on Snapfish here (you have to have an account to view.)

Gone to Italia, Dahlia!

...and that's all I've got to say...

Move to a Cave, Maeve

Sorry I've been out of commission for a while. I'm obsessively working on some renovation and restructuring inside my digs. And it all started with a little quart of latex paint that a friend gave to me. Oops.

Anyway - I'm still telling stories with vim and vigor, verve and contentment. And the audience has a lot to say about what goes into the stories. Today the Stonecutter morphed into a Chef; a Rich Man Who Wore a Leather Jacket, Cool Polka Dot Pants and Cool Clogs; a King in a Parade in a Great Car and Wearing a Crown, and so on...you know the rest of the story--right?

Why Don't You Show Us, Lois

One of my favorite picture book artists is Lois Ehlert. Last week I read Snowballs three times! We have a giant edition of it at work which I love to use because the illustrations of the snow people are about as tall as a two-year-old child. You can view the wonderful cover and the first few pages here. And here is an interview with Lois, a gentle soul for sure: