Spin the Yarn

In the chapter, “Storytelling in Libraries and Schools in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland,” from “Part II” of the book Storytelling: Art and Technique , Patrick Ryan writes about the time that he ran storytelling workshops for young offenders in prison. During these workshops, what he discovered was that, “The boys were particularly interested in ghost stories, and we explored the fact that, more than content, how a story is told makes it scary” (Ryan, 2010, p. 260). While reading this section of the chapter, I was at first reminded of how much I used to enjoy ghost stories when I was in elementary school. It began when I was in third or fourth grade, and my parents had bought me the book The Scariest Stories You’ve Ever Heard, Part II , from the Scholastic Book Fair. I read it a couple of times and began to retell the stories to my friends. During sleepovers, we would sit in a circle and tell ghost stories in the dark, and it was always fun to hear a new one that you co

Something that spoke to me as I was reading through chapter 11 of Ellin Greene and Janice M. Del Negro’s (2010) Storytelling: Art and Technique , titled “Program Planning,” was just how important being flexible is as a storyteller. The first sentence of the chapter states that, “A successful storytelling program requires careful planning, flexibility, and creativity” (p. 213). Planning and creativity are necessary for creating the program, but I feel like flexibility is what allows you to carry it out despite any obstacles that may present themselves. Being flexible and knowing how to adjust your plan is what keeps it from getting derailed when met with an unexpected challenge. As Greene and Del Negro (2010) write, “The public library storyteller does not always know who will be at the story program and therefore must be prepared to make changes” (p. 214). When thinking about flexibility and planning, I was reminded of a course that I took last spring, EDEX 581: Teaching Reading in t