This morning dawned “gray with an ‘a’ ” – the gray hue of dirty socks, not the crisp jagged grey of stone – and thus the perfect way to combat it is by donning brilliant attire.
And it paid off at the bookstore, where a little girl and her baby brother found common ground with me in the colors we both wore. They were fascinated by what I call my Crayola vest, with its dark purple base, inset mirrors, and patchworks of gold, green, orange, tan, and pink, as well as by my hot pink stockings and hot pink sash.
Children will always notice what you’re wearing. I still have neighborhood kids who are now teenagers or college-bound tell me that they remember my storyteller outfits from more than a decade ago, like my playful rendition of Miss Spider’s Tea Party by David Kirk, or my terrifying recounting of the Bloody Beast of Ruddigore as imagined by Judy Sierra.
===============================
Three fictional characters who serve as sartorial-bibliophiliac-polymath muses for me are: Miss Frizzle, especially when she goes into astronomy-mode; Crinkleroot, who is my eldest brother in disguise; and Miss Bindergarten, who always reminds me so much of one of my former coworkers, down to the chunky-alphabet-block necklace.
And there’s plenty of real-life counterparts in the professional storytelling world… Story Guys, Story Ladies, teachers, bards, naturalists, and plenty in between.
The Professional Storytellers Network on Ning
Make someone’s world brighter. Share a book, tell a tale, grow a scientist.
—pmc2
