October 16, 2004

Stories for Halloween and Other Times

As fall days get shorter and we have more dark and stormy nights, remember the power of storytelling to warm your spirit.  Welcome to the world of creepy crawly things, of boo-hags and flying heads.  Antoinette Botsford--of Orcas Island--performs again at the San Juan Island Library on Friday October 29th from 7:00-9:00 sharing some of her carefully wrought collection of deliciously frightening tales, old and new. Learn about skeletons that come to life, a Boo-Hag or two, and a young man's sojourn in the underworld, and how a young woman overcame the worst serial killer to ever show up in a fairy tale. This free, family event is open to all, young and old, although the scary stories after the intermission may not be appropriate for children under six years of age. Come in costume or come in pajamas.

 The storytelling performance will be followed by a four-week workshop focused on discovering the joy and benefits of storytelling for families with kindergarten through fifth-grade aged children.

Storyteller Botsford is especially known for native North American tales (many learned from her Canadian-Métis relatives, and a large part of her performance repertoire includes stories adapted from world cultures. She toured for six months with Utah's Grammy-winning Douglas Spotted Eagle in his stage show, Voices of Native America, and was honored by the Washington Commission for the Humanities as an Enquiring Mind presenter.

The library's storytelling workshop will take place the first four Tuesday evenings in November from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM in the Elementary School Library on the following dates: November 2, 9, 16, and 23.  The workshop series will encourage children and their parents to discover the joy and benefits of storytelling and to be better story listeners and tellers.  A variety of stories, storytellers, and storytelling techniques will be shared so that participants can find what works best for each individual.  Focused on having fun in the process, workshop participants will learn ways of making storytelling a part of their daily family life. For more information, contact Laura Tretter at 378-2798.