Tall Tales for Small People

By Kate Lilienthal

Spinning Yarns Provides More Than Good Entertainment
Once at risk of becoming a lost tradition in these busy, media-inundated times, storytelling has regained respect and recognition as a popular form of art, instruction and entertainment. In this article, we introduce professional storytellers from the San Francisco Bay area and discover their secrets of spinning a good yarn.

Ten preschoolers sit in a circle, entranced in a story. Some snuggle into their parents’ laps. Others wriggle as the suspense builds. When mountains of doughnuts at last explode from Homer Price’s brand-new, automatic doughnut-making gizmo, their enthusiasm breaks in a rush of noise and questions.

“Were there crumbs?” one asks.

“How did they eat them all?” another demands. 

Lynette Patton, Mountain View resident and volunteer storyteller when not working as a nurse, is telling the tale of Homer Price, doughnut king of Centerburg. No pictures, no screens, no fancy sound system, just Lynette and her trained voice. And her listeners gobble her words like, well, dozens of fresh doughnuts.

The affair is called  “An Evening of Storytelling with the Peninsula Story Guild” at the children’s library in Palo Alto, and it provides a free-flowing hour of tales for children and adults. This is just one of many such storytelling events that take place regularly in the Bay Area. 

Rediscovering the Power of Stories