Story Squad arrived at Rashkis Elementary School (in Chapel Hill) on Friday, April 10th for a three-hour, multi-grade storytelling extravaganza! School Librarian Helen Sharma invited us to share stories with first, second, and third graders and answer student questions about storytelling and college life. We shared multi-cultural folktales from around the world. Teachers exclaimed after each session how quiet and attentive the children were (that’s the power of storytelling)! After we left, children were invited to share their reactions to the stories, and those were displayed in the school’s hallway. Helen shared three close-ups of their responses that show the impact of the storytelling on them. These also show the delightful sound-spelling children use when they know a word but not how to spell it. That’s the beauty of storytelling; it allows children to engage with literature based on their receptive vocabularies, not just on their productive ones. Thank you Rashkis Elementary for having us out to your school.

Story Squad recently hired Becca Daughtry as a part-time Graduate Assistant to help with populating the Folktale Storytelling Digital Library with videos and background folktale research, developing a network of storytelling community contacts for performance opportunities, and developing a growth plan to help Story Squad and its resources gain further traction in the community and expand beyond the immediate local vicinity. We were recently blessed with a wonderful financial donation that is going to help us with this endeavor. WELCOME, BECCA!

Sixty-one people attended the 14th annual “Storytelling Under the Stars” event this year, a collaboration between the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and the School of Information and Library Science on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Student storytellers Aimee, David, Katie, Mohala, and Shelby regaled the audience with celestial folktales from around the world (and across the night sky), including:

• Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Bull of Heaven (the constellation Taurus): Mesopotamia
• Andromeda and the Sea Monster (the constellations Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Perseus, and Cetus): Greece
• The Hunters and the Great Bear (the constellation Big Dipper): Native American (Iroquois)
• The Origin of the Milky Way: Native American: Cherokee
• The Origin of the Moon: Africa: Pulaar
• Special thanks to Amy Sayle, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center Science Education Specialist, for overseeing the gig and controlling the night sky and special effects to make the event superb!  She’s AMAZING!

Story Squad sent five storytellers (Mohala, Halah, Zane, Britney, and Brian) to enchant two classes of first graders at St. Thomas More Catholic School in Capel Hill on Friday, November 7th, 2025. We shared stories from folklore and children’s literature, including:

• The Little Red Hen (England)
• Stone Soup (France)
• The Stinky Dragon (England)
• The Gingerbread Boy (England)
• The Goblin Story (by Else Minarik)

The children were amazing listeners (focused and living in the story worlds we created), and they gave wonderful answers when asked what they thought a goblin looked like; one student brought in details from every story she’d heard in her description. The questions they asked afterward about the stories were very thoughtful, as they tried to understand the story nuances and character motivations: “Why did the gingerbread boy run away?” “How do you <i>really</i> make soup?” “Why did the other animals not help the Little Red Hen make the bread?” “Why did the witch change Margaret into a stinky dragon?”

Story Squad will continue the annual tradition (except for during COVID years) of sharing stories under the night sky in the wonderfully climate-controlled, fulldome theater on Sunday, November 9, 2025 from 6:00pm – 7:00pm. The stories are recommended for ages 7 and up.  More information and tickets ($5) are available on this webpage.

Story Squad made two appearances for Northside Elementary School (Chapel Hill) preschoolers on Tuesday, September 30th and Friday, October 10th. Our storytellers shared tales from world folklore, including:

• The Lion and the Mouse (Greece, Aesop)
• The Gingerbread Boy (American adaptation)
• The Monkey and the Crocodile (India)
• The Tortoise and the Hare (Greece, Aesop)
• Why the Sky is Far Away (Nigeria)

The preschoolers were excellent listeners and participants in the storytelling, growling along with the Lion or running like the Gingerbread Boy. The student storytellers were treated to hugs afterwards, fitting reward for a job well done.

On March 28th, Story Squad members shared folktales and literary tales with 1st graders at St. Thomas More Elementary School, including:

• a modern adaptation of The Elephant’s Child (by Rudyard Kipling, literary)
• Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock (African folktale)
• Stephanie’s Ponytail (by Robert Munsch, literary)
• Hummingbird’s Courage (Peruvian folktale)
• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (by John Scieszka, literary)
• The Twelve Dancing Princesses (German folktale)

Everyone had a great time! Thank you to Joy Pasin, the school librarian, for inviting us to visit the school and entertain the children.

Story Squad has begun a new year-long project in collaboration with Dr. Heba Abd Al Salam to use storytelling as a cultural bridge with new, Middle Eastern refugees to the Triangle area. The project seeks to address the issue of cultural isolation and language barriers for Middle Eastern and Muslim refugees in the Triangle area. Journal articles and professionals in organizations that support refugees claim the primary focus of support is on the economic needs of their clients and “the resettlement process is devoid of cultural interventions” (Diya Abdo, Every Campus a Refuge project). Through a 9-month series of field trips to cultural heritage institutions and local historical sites, participants will encounter local NC culture and heritage to increase their understanding of their new home’s traditions and grow their sense of belonging. The primary educational strategy will be bilingual storytelling to bring cultural artifacts and spaces to life. Each field excursion will include on-site translation and a bilingual handout/booklet to help increase language exposure and give participants something to revisit. We hope to reinforce a sense of pride in their own culture and help them feel welcomed and valued in North Carolina.

We have assembled a team of dedicated student volunteers to help with program preparation and support, and we have reached out to three refugee organizations as possible collaborators: US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Raleigh, and Church World Service and World Relief in Durham. We are planning our first field trip in late February and are currently working on logistics and preparing the programs for the spring!

We are very thankful that this program is supported in part by North Carolina Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, www.nchumanities.org.

Dr. Brian was featured on “Storytime with Jeffrey Griffin” this morning on Triad Today WSJS (FM 101.5), Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/triad-today/episodes/Storytime-with-Dr–Brian-Sturm-5-13-24-e2jjpjn

Story Squad gave an introductory storytelling workshop to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library (CMPL) staff this week.  We had 20 attendees from youth and adult services who spent the afternoon exploring how to find, learn, and perform folktales from around the world. We discussed performance anxiety, audience participation, the use of props, and various ways of visualizing stories so that they maintain an improvisational quality, even after multiple retellings.  What a great group of storytellers work at CMPL!  Thanks for having us down to be part of this.