The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book

by Bob Hartman

  How the Kangaroo Got Its Tail

  Everyone jumps up and down like the kangaroo children – both when they are introduced and later when the bandicoot comes after them. You could also lead them in making a tug-of-war pulling motion when they struggle with the bandicoot.

  The Greedy Farmer

  Choose someone who can sing to play the Fairy of the Lake. Teach them a simple tune (a commonly known traditional tune is best, but a popular contemporary song can be really funny). Everyone else (the cows) puts their fingers like horns at the side of their heads. When the fairy sings in the story, the fairy-person sings their tune and everyone else sways and moos and pretend to follows wherever she or he leads.

  The Generous Bird

  Everyone walks like the bird in the story as he makes his way from place to place – knees jerking, head bobbing and hands dragging behind like his tail.

  Tiger Eats a Monkey

  Half the group plays the monkeys, screeching and hooting whenever they do in the story. The other half plays Tiger, making a tossing motion as he throws the monkey into the air, and a spitting, hissing, howling commotion when he swallows the tamarind fruit.

  Lazy Tom

  Ask everyone to make a hammering motion and the little click-clacking sound of the leprechaun at work. Do this at the beginning while Tom looks for the leprechaun – until the moment he grabs him – and also at the end. Lead Tom among the seated children, stop at one of them, and ask them to hold their jumper in the air. Then send Tom outside the room for a moment. Meanwhile, everyone takes off their jumpers and holds them in the air – and then bring Tom back in again for the surprising end to the story.

  The Contented Priest

  This works well with a few props. You could put on a big hoody when the gardener does. You could drop a few coins when the gardener gives his answer to the first question. You could stamp on the floor when the gardener answers the second question. And you could throw back the hood when the gardener answers the final question. As far as your audience participation is concerned, they could repeat the three questions after you, whenever they come up in the story.

  Olle and the Troll

  Use the hoody from the previous story for this one as well. First, ask your audience to make troll faces and grunting troll noises with you. Squash your nose to your face or put your fingers over your eyebrows and wiggle them. Draw a big imaginary line from ear to ear and make a scary smile. And shake your left hand and howl like a wolf. You might want to repeat these actions every time the story says, ‘Olle had never seen a troll.’

  Then put on the hoody and, pretending to be the troll, wrap a bit of cloth around that wolf hand. And when the troll laughs at the end, rock your head back and laugh out loud, and then splutter and choke when the bread is popped into your mouth.

  The Steel Man

  Everyone plays Joe Magarac, repeating the actions after you as appropriate. They stamp on the floor (Boom! Boom! Boom!), make a rumbling tumbling laugh and hee-haw like donkeys. They also pretend to gobble up coal and drink steel soup and pick their teeth with chisels, then pick up the railroad tracks, and stir and squeeze the steel in their fists to make the beams. As the steelworkers search the mill for Joe, they can all laugh along with you.

  The Crafty Farmer

  Your audience can climb the pole with Farmer Yasohachi. Make climbing motions – perhaps taking them from a seating to a crouching to a standing position – and then all fall down!

  Tiger Tries to Cheat

  You play Tiger and two children play the cave, making an arch with their arms above you. Another child plays the boulder, standing in front of you. Everyone else pretends to be the other animals, pushing and grunting in their seats. Then simply reverse the motions when turtle makes his suggestion at the end.

  The Two Brothers

  The audience play the wasps in the wasps’ nest, making a buzzing sounds and waving their hands about whenever the wasps or the nest are mentioned.

  Kayoku and the Crane

  This is quite a serious story, so any silly participation will only spoil the mood. But the audience can call like a crane – a long, sad ‘aaw-aaw’ – both at the start and at the end when the crane flies away.

  The Two Sisters

  Divide your audience in half. One group plays the kind daughter, repeating her kind words and actions after you. The other group plays the unkind daughter, similarly repeating her words and actions. It’s also fun to have two bags – one filled with plastic flowers and cheap jewellery, and the other with rubber snakes and frogs – to toss on the floor at the appropriate times!

  The Selfish Beasts

  Divide your group into three parts – one for each animal. The Lion group roars, the Hyena group yip-yaps, and the Vulture group squawks. Bring them all in together while they chew on the antelope at the beginning. Then bring them in whenever the animals describe their pet peeves, when they fight, and then, one by one, as they eat alone at the end.

  The Determined Frog

  Everyone joins in the frog’s words with you: ‘I can’t give up and I won’t give up!’ They can also move their legs and arms in a paddling motion, getting more desperate and loud as the frog’s struggles increase. They could also join you in a ‘splish and splash and jump and croak’ action.

  The Robber and the Monk

  Choose three volunteers – one to be the monk, one to be the robber and one to be the shopkeeper. Find a big book and pass it from one to the other at the appropriate times.

  A note from the author

  With the exception of ‘The Generous Bird’, all the stories in this book are retellings of traditional tales from around the world. They have been retold by many people over the years and I am just the next in a long line of storytellers. Each of us uses slightly different words and phrases, and so the stories evolve. You may wish to read other versions of some of these stories, so I would like to acknowledge some of the sources I have referred to, although most of these stories can be found in several collections.

  ‘Three Months’ Night’ from ‘One Night, One Day’ in Tales of the Nimipoo by E.B. Heady, World Publishing Co, New York. ‘Arion and the Dolphin’ from ‘The Boy and the Dolphin’ in Old Greek Fairy Tales by R. Lancelyn Green, G. Bell & Sons Ltd, London. The ‘Rabbit and Tiger’ stories from The Tiger and the Rabbit and Other Tales by P. Belpre, J.B. Lippincott & Co. ‘The Shepherd and the Clever Princess’ from ‘Timo and the Princess Vendla’ and ‘The Amazing Pine Cone’ from ‘The Two Pine Cones’ in Tales from a Finnish Tupa by J. Lloyd Bowman and M. Blanco, A. Whitman & Co, Chicago. ‘Tortoise Brings Food’ from ‘Uwungelema’ and ‘The Very Strong Sparrow’ from ‘The Strongest Sparrow in the Forest’ in African Fairy Tales by K. Arnott, Frederick Muller Ltd, London. ‘The Mouse Deer’s Wisdom’ from ‘King Solomon, the Merchant and the Mouse Deer’ in Java Jungle Tales by H. DeLeeuw, Arco Publishing, New York. ‘The Four Friends’ from ‘The Goat, the Raven, the Rat, and the Tortoise’ in Animal Folk Tales by B. Kerr Wilson, Hamlyn Publishing Group, London. ‘The Brave Bull Calf’ from ‘A Little Bull Calf’ in The Gypsy Fiddle by J. Hampden, World Publishing Co, New York. ‘The Clever Mouse’ from ‘St Cadog and the Mouse’ in Welsh Legendary Tales by E. Sheppard-Jones, Nelson, Edinburgh. ‘The Selfish Sand Frog’ from ‘The Thirsty Sand Frog’ and ‘How the Kangaroo Got Its Tale’ in Djugurba: Tales from the Spirit Time, Australian National University Press, Canberra. ‘The Mouse’s Bride’ from Fairy Tales of India by L. Turnbull, Criterion Books, New York. ‘The Big Wave’ from ‘Gleanings in Buddha Fields’ by Lafcadio Hearn, Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston. ‘The Knee-High Man’ from ‘The Knee-High Man’ in The Stars Fell on Alabama by C. Carmer, Farrar and Rinehart, New York. ‘The Clever Baker’ from ‘The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies’ in Heather and Broom by S.N. Leodhas, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York. ‘The Greedy Farmer’ from ‘The Marvellous Cow of Clyn Barfog’ in Elves and Ellefolk by N.M. Belting, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York. ‘Lazy Tom’ from ‘The Field
of Boliauns’ in Fairy Tales from the British Isles by A. Williams-Ellis, Frederick Warne & Co, London. ‘The Contented Priest’ from ‘The Gardener, the Abbot and the King’ in Bungling Pedro and Other Majorcan Tales by A. Mehdevi, Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ‘Olle and the Troll’ from ‘The Old Troll of the Big Mountain’ in The Faber Book of Northern Folktales by K. Crossley-Holland, Faber & Faber, London. ‘The Steel Man’ from Joe Magarac and His USA Citizen Papers by I. Shapiro, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh. ‘The Crafty Farmer’ from ‘Crafty Yasohachi Climbs to Heaven’ and ‘Kayoku and the Crane’ from ‘The Cloth of a Thousand Feathers’ in Men from the Village Deep in the Mountains, translated by G. Bang, Collier Macmillan Publishers, London. ‘The Two Brothers’ from ‘The Golden Gourd’ in South American Wonder Tales by F. Carpenter, Follett Publishing Company, New York. ‘The Selfish Beasts’ from ‘Why the Lion, the Vulture, and the Hyena Do Not Live Together’ in Olode the Hunter and Other Tales from Nigeria by H. Courlander, Harcourt, Brace & World Inc, New York. ‘The Determined Frog’ from ‘The Wise Frog and the Foolish Frog’ in Tales of Central Russia by J. Riordan, Kestrel Books, London. ‘The Robber and the Monk’ from The Desert Fathers, translated by H. Waddell, Collins Publishers, London.