Story Corner With Dr. NanaPlum

Rosie Wears Her Wellingtons: by Niamh Clune and illustrated by Marta Pelrine-Bacon

Well! The Lechlade Festival came and went. The tents are packed, traders, music lovers, bands, belly-dancers, poets and all manner of performers left only a muddy field behind ~ the only reminder of the fun that was shared by all! It was a wonderful event ~ even though the rain-soaked Saturday provided plenteous (is that a word; if not it should be) mud puddles to jump in. Some children were shoeless and mud-spattered; None-the-less, their faces were bright, cheery, festival-painted, sticky (as children’s faces should be) and as happy as happy can be. I gave a copy of Rosie Wears Her Wellingtons to every little girl I saw splishing and sploshing in the mud whether she was wearing wellingtons or not!

And the story-telling session went well; even though I had to project my voice over the sound of Reggae pumping and resounding through all the tents; even though most of the straw bales that we were supposed to sit on had been relocated to make pathways through the mud; even though there was no electricity in the story-telling and poetry tent, so I couldn’t project story illustrations; lots of children came. I felt like the Pied Piper: “Follow me; if you want to romp in realms of quizzical imaginings!” I managed to read the stories above the noise and distractions, and my little river of rapt faces didn’t seem to notice or mind. But that’s the nature of story-telling: if the story captures the imagination and carries you along into another world, you don’t notice the din, or the rain, or the discomfort. Thank you, Lechlade for the opportunity to captivate another little audience. And Bravo for the wonderful community spirit you always manage to create.

 

“The answer to your question,” said the bear, “depends on you, as the answers to most questions must.” (copyright Niamh Clune 2014 Ice Bear by Gretchen Del Rio http://www.gretchendelrio.com)

 

I read the story of Is The Sky Sad? It’s all about the rain and whether it makes you happy or not ~ after all, it does depend on how you look at it! The Wise Bear (one of the characters in the story) knows. After all, we can be creative in the event of any occurrence ~ can’t we?

The story of, Is The Sky Sad, will be published in the near future and will be illustrated by the fabulous Gretchen Del Rio. This is one of her bears. He does look like a very wise bear indeed. Doesn’t he?

About Dr Niamh

When I was a little girl (a very, very long time ago), I used to love learning new, really big words like ‘discombobulate’. As I grew, my love of words grew too, until I loved them so much, I could not stop writing them down. One day, as I was scribbling a particular word, a very peculiar thing happened. The word shouted at me, “Stop! Don’t put me there!” As you can imagine, I was shocked and nearly fell off my chair. When I recovered somewhat, I said to the word, “Could you stop shouting, please? I am not used to it.” Can you guess what happened next? No! I thought not. The word said, “I might be small, but I will misbehave if you do not use me properly. I will not tell the story you would like me to tell. I will say something entirely different!” I dropped my pen. I hoped that by dropping my pen, the word would stop talking. Alas! It did not. It carried on chitterchobbling, even after the ink had dried. I was in a pickle. I could not allow my words to run away with my story, now could I? I don’t know about you, but when this sort of thing happens, there is only one thing left to do if you prefer not to spend your time arguing. “Very well,” said I. “I will do as you ask if you will just be quiet and allow me to concentrate.” Since that day, I have been paying special attention to every word I invite into my stories. After all, a story should say exactly what it means to say and not be led astray. With love from Dr. Niamh, Ph.D in Learning Through The Imagination and Founder of Dr Niamh Children's Books. www.drniamhchildrensbooks.com

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