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You can simply sit around the campfire and read this book, and I’m sure that everyone who hears it will enjoy it, but what is the fun in that?
This book has been carefully written and hand crafted with the idea of turning an otherwise boring campfire experience into something that will be talked about and looked forward to each and every time you read it.
Story telling is a lost art. Today, we sit around a TV set and let it do all the work for us. There is no imagination needed.
To be a true storyteller is to get involved in the story, dress and act the part. And it takes practice. You can’t expect to cold read a story that you have never read before and expect it to be believable or even remotely entertaining
Now, I don’t what you to think that it is just too hard to be a storyteller. It’s not. With a little bit of practice and some simple props you can become a storyteller indeed.
The following information may help your on you way:
Practice
- Pick out a few stories that you feel are appropriate for the age group you will be reading them to, and practice reading them out loud.
- Don’t worry about reading the story word for word. After reading the stories several times you will begin to remember them as your memory kicks in.
- Embellish it, make the story yours, only then will it be believable and more fun for you and those around you.
- Expressions
- Use your voice to express the highs and lows of a story. Change you voice where needed.
- Pause occasionally and look at the illuminated faces around you.
- Look and stare off into the distance as if seeing something or someone out in the darkness.
Props
- Sprinkle a little cornstarch on the pages and then just before reading it blow off the pages commenting on the age of the book
- Pick up an old stick to use as a cane or staff. The knarlelier the better.
- Bring an old hat or jacket if you got it. As before, the more it is wore out the better your appearance. I use an old cowboy hat and duster
- Anything that will make it interesting an old beaten up oil lamp, a pipe, maybe even an old rifle.
A Little Help
- Depending upon the story or course you may want someone to simply go out beyond the campfire light and walk around so that they can be heard, but not seen. They can even break some twigs’ or branches ever so often, just to keep it interesting.
The Entrance
- Make an entrance. You’re not just Uncle Bob or Aunt Sue, you are the storyteller, Act like one, become one.
The Book
- You will probably be asked where you got the book, so, you need to be prepared as to how you came about owning it.
Here are just a few idea's
- You were rummaging through an old antique store when you came upon it hidden in an old bookshelf. Even the owner of the store had never seen it. And you had to convince him to sell it to you.
- While helping a neighbor clean out his attic you can upon it, hidden in an old steamer trunk that he acquired after his Grandfather death. The book creeped him out, so he asked you to take it.
The point is, have fun with the experience of story telling. The more you put into it, the more you, and those listening to you, will get out of it.
Yes, I have done this several times and although my boys and their friends are all grown up now, ever so often one of their friends will bring it up and comment on how much they enjoyed it. And the look on their face tells it all as they relive the experience time and time again.
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