Stories never really end...

The end of the tale?...

38 libraries and 723 people, assorted library staff and 3 somewhat mythed-out artists later and Derbyshire Myths and Legends draws to a close!

DML grew out of a desire to take the Summer Reading Challenge's broad theme (Mythical Mazes) and do something connected to the immediate environment of our libraries. The Challenge itself has been a great success this year. Through the Derbyshire Libraries, 9654 children signed up to the challenge and 6624 completed it. As a storyteller, I am assuming that those who didn't manage to complete the Challenge have been kidnapped by pirates, or have run away to join the circus, or are perhaps off playing with the Lonely Beast in a leafy green wood, or are out with The Great Explorer having their own adventures and not actually needing to read about anyone else's!

I look forward to reading those children's own stories sometime!

This has been an eventful summer and a delightful project

"I have had a lot of fun this summer working with the families who have attended my Storytelling workshops. The inventiveness and creativity that I've been party to has been inspiring. Huge thanks to everyone who took part. I've loved working with Debi, Gordon and Julie Potton. Thanks also for all the support and help of the library staff.  To work in each library and see it come to life with living breathing stories has been a joy."  Maria (storyteller)

“It’s been good for so many libraries, irrespective of size, or location, to experience quality, artist based workshops. Feedback from those who attended has been really positive and it’s made the Summer Reading Challenge even more fun than usual”. Julie Potton (Children's Library Service Manager)

"This has been fun! It has been a joy to work with so many young people so full of ideas and excitement and imaginations. Workshops were a real delight and so unpredictable! For "my" sessions and in our joint workshops, we could never anticipate just what would happen. We planned and outlined and hoped and then the stories we made as a group went galloping off somewhere else altogether!  The team were great: I enjoyed meeting and working with Debi and Maria and echo Maria's comments about the librarians and the welcome they offered and I thank Julie deeply. We couldn't have done any of this without her!" Gordon (another storyteller)

What a fabulous, exciting and creative session. It really pushed Sam and Freya’s imaginations to the limits. Lovely - Mum

I love art so I really enjoyed it and my goblin is very happy to be alive -Kate aged 10

I really enjoyed all the stories we made up with the pictures - Leanne

I enjoyed it all - Harriet aged 9

 

no-one ever quite worked out what was going on here....

Thanks to all our artists, storyteller, storymakers, audiences and wildly excitable people!

Our artists/storytellers:

Maria Whatton

Gordon MacLellan (Creeping Toad)

Debi Hedderwick

 ...but stories never really end, 

so what are we all doing next summer?

Magic and mischief in Melbourne!

Melbourne Library

Tuesday 3rd September

Druk the Dragon was watching!

Our last event and before the storytelling even started we had a magical start when a unicorn arrived and the whole workshop took place under the watchful stare of Druk the Chinese dragon, suspended from the ceiling.

but was the unicorn helpful or did it just gets
its hooves and horn in the paint?

The stories that grew here had a strong fairy flavour... 

there was a tough fairy, 

fairies who lived in a fairy house, 

a troll bridge where you could only cross if you got a code from Steve and then you could cross and get 10 wishes

that unicorn is still there!

There was Turtola who could do wizard magic, 

and a King and Queen of Fairyland where if you entered their enchanted rainbow castle as a boy or a girl you would stroll out a grown-up Prince or Princess 

with many thanks to our Melbourne storytellers, artists and storymakers - 

and the Unicorn and Druk the Dragon!

Fish, mermaids and Swadlincote

Swadlincote Library

Wednesday 3rd September

September began with a story...

...and then the mermaids arrived:

wicked Devorcock who could turn people into eels

Spelleela the Mermaid Queen who could speak to those eels in their own language, "Blah, blah, blah"

there was Angladog, a fish; a Rainbow Fish and King Octapussy and Queen Fishy who lived in a Royal Castle at the end of a path of gold

And what did our storymakers think of all this strangeness?

• The storytelling was interesting and exciting
•  I enjoyed listening to the different stories and creating our own magical kingdom  (Shannon aged 7)
•  I think that it was fun and a chance to express our creativity  (Maria aged 10!)
•  Fun (Jacob aged 8)

with many thanks to our Swadlincote storytellers, artists and storymakers!

An afternoon of adventures in Chesterfield

 Chesterfield Library

Monday 1st September

...and then in the afternoon

and in the afternoon, the world grew stranger. The morning was weird enough but the carnivorous plants didn't really take root until the sun was well-risen and the swamp was well-swampy and the woods were well-woody...

An adventures grew through the afternoon. Ideas of monsters and mayhem, wild creatures and ferocious places. And we ended up with friendly little puppies....

Friendly puppies and a watchful world

there were two lovely puppies who got very excited
and wee'd on the floor

the puppies went adventuring with a girl and her giraffe

on their adventures, they met a sinister witch

and in a swamp, a dangerous plant grew

a plant at full height

but our heroes made it home, safe and, more or less, sound, all the way back to Chesterfield

and the Wingfield chickens were still clucking...

with many thanks to all our artists, storytellers, storymakers and puppeteers!

A morning of Chesterfield stories

Chesterfield Library

1st September
once upon a summer morning...

from woods with poisoned apples to
aliens with a hundred eyes and
a hundred arms and
a hundred arms and
ten hundred fingers,
you never know what you might find in Chesterfield on the first day of autumn?

a moment of wild adventure?
secrets slipped into the bookcases of the library?

The sad story of Wingfield-in-the-Middle. 
Famed once for its curly-feathered chickens, this small but pretty village disappeared suddenly one summer morning, simply vanished away leaving never a trace of its presence nor its passing on the green fields and woods between South and North Wingfields. The only survivors - or maybe the only people left behind - were a group of curly-feather chickens sitting on a wall. The descendants of these birds are to be found in the gardens of South Wingfield houses to this day

and a last look at some of the rarest (not to mention, curliest) birds all the world)

with many thanks to all our artists, storyteller, storymakers and puppeteers in Chesterfield