The Power of Storytelling

During the end of May I visited the local elementary schools to talk up our Summer Reading program. I visited around 3800 students at various assemblies around the area. With me I took the very accomplished storyteller Rachel Hedman to get the children excited and then I gave the "boring" part of the assembly where I talked about the summer reading program and what they needed to do to sign up.

Where children are endlessly entertained by videogames and TV I was not sure that sitting still and listening to someone tell a story would go over well. But these children were entirely riveted to every word that Rachel spoke. When she gestured to the back of the room and spoke of a "glowing book" "far in the distance" half the children's heads turned to the back of the cafeteria to see this imaginary book. It was great to see the YouTube generation sitting so quietly, hands in their laps, eyes forward, listening to simple, well-told stories.