Supergreat Kids' Stories

Our pick of the week picture goes to Juno from Hanover in Germany, age 7.

Juno has drawn the Scottish story: The Cat Fishers. She's drawn the old black cat, and the younger white one, who are having a singing competition to see who gets to eat the fish which they've caught.

We love the way that you’ve put musical notes drifting above the cats' heads, and the way you've drawn sly Mr Fox with his jagged teeth and white tipped tail who is slinking off with the juicy fish in his mouth. What a trickster! A lovely drawing. Thank you!

Kim and Story Owl.

This Week's Storyteller: Rebecca Lemaire

Rebecca is a Belgian-British storyteller living in the South of Spain. She tells stories for children and adults wherever the wind takes her, from Europe to Asia and Africa. Her passion is to look into people’s eyes and travel with them through stories, whether at a festival, in a prison, a yoga school, a Tibetan monastery in the Himalayas, a theatre, or a library. She often uses percussion (flute, kalimba, voice, and drum) to support the stories she tells. She says, “Storytelling is a form of communication that goes way beyond words; it is a heart-to-heart interaction, and that is why I love it!”

For more information about Rebecca: www.rebeccalemaire.com

This week's story: The Donkey in the Lion's Skin is a trickster tale and a fable.

A donkey finds a lion skin and tries it on just for fun. He discovers that the animals are more respectful when they think he's a lion. But what happens when donkey takes his trick too far and tries to frighten Fox ? Have a listen to this delightful Aesop's Fable from Greece with a catchy song in it. Can you solve Rebecca's riddles and guess the animals who donkey meets along the way?

8 year old June from Michigan in the US tells us she’s a big fan of Supergreat Kids’ Stories and listens on her bike rides every night - that sounds fun! Thanks for sending us your fantastic picture of Squirrel’s house from the story Why Bear Hibernates.

I really like the way you’ve drawn the house high up in the tree with Squirrel scampering up little ladder to his cosy home hidden in the branches. How clever were the animals to stop Bear eating all the hazelnuts and berries during the cold winter months by making him a warm place to sleep in a hollow log!

Enjoy your bike rides in the summer listening to stories! Story Owl

What a fantastic picture Simon has drawn of Tutu, the little turtle who lost his shell. Imagine finding toads using it as a boat! Even though it was no longer colourful and shiny, Tutu was so relieved to have it back, wasn’t he?

I love your imaginative idea of drawing a baby turtle on his back too - I wonder what adventures they might have together? They certainly look very happy plodding along together!

Story Owl

Illari lives in Lennox Head, Australia and tells us that she listens to Supergreat Kids’ Stories as soon as she gets home from school, in the shower, while she’s drawing and in the morning before school - I think that makes you a super fan, Illari!

Thanks for sending in your 3 fantastic drawings - I especially like all those little pesky yams chasing Brother Tiger singing ‘ticky picky, boom boom poof!’ Lazy Anansi certainly didn’t deserve to go to the yam party did he?

Poor little turtle lying on his back on the big flat rock where he’d been thrown with the wolf ear spoons beside him. From having a smooth shiny shell to having a cracked one might have been a disaster but he knew how to mend the cracks singing ‘I am sewing myself together!’ Phew!

Happy listening and enjoy illustrating lots more of the stories. Story Owl

8 year old Rex is not only a super great listener but also a super great artist!

What an amazing picture you’ve drawn of your favourite story Mama Draga. I really like way you’ve included so many imaginative details like the very grand house where kind hearted Rosetta lived and the little wooden house where Angelina lived. Both little girls had visited fearsome ogress Mama Draga who lived at the bottom of the well. Look at her with her wild hair and stinky breath sitting smoking her pipe!

Selfish and unkind Angelina looks as if she is being ordered to scrub the floor for Mama Draga in an old ragged dress. If only she’d been kinder like Rosetta!

Thanks for sending us your beautifully drawn picture, Rex. Story Owl

5 year old Adelaide from Northern Kentucky recently listened to the story The Giant of The Rhymney River and drew this beautiful picture of herself as a fairy! Thanks for sharing it with us all.

I love your pretty green wings and long hair and you certainly look a very happy fairy unlike the ones that lived where the fearsome giant stomped around in the Blackwoods where they all lived! Hurrah for wise owl and his plan that finally got rid of the giant so all the fairies and creatures could continue living happily there again.

Have a lovely summer! Story Owl

A super great hi to Quanah who is 7 and loves stories - hearing and telling them too! I love your illustration of the giant in the story The Giant of The Rhymney River, thanks for sending it in for us all to see, Quanah.

How enormous, mean and nasty he looks with a hairy body and angry red face in the middle of his chest and his equally nasty snake coiled round beside him. No wonder he terrorised the little fairies and all the creatures living in the Blackwoods - yikes! Hurrah for wise owl and his plan to rid the woods of him.

Enjoy the summer listening to more stories and doing some more fantastic drawings too.

Story Owl

Pick of the Week Picture: Tutu's Lost Shell by Etta age 8 from Australia.

Our pick of the week picture goes to Etta who is 8, from the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne in Australia. Recently she was listening to Supergreat Kids’ Stories on a long car journey and drew this marvellous picture of Tutu’s Lost Shell - a story which comes from Côte d’Ivoire (a country in West Africa also known as The Ivory Coast).

We love the way you’ve drawn Tutu looking so happy with her friends : owl, pigeon, and duck. And the patterns on her shell drawn with such careful detail. And the 3 cheeky frogs looking so cross that they were dunked into the water! A great picture of a lovely story - well done Etta!

Kim and Story Owl.

This week's Storyteller: Paul Alborough

Paul is a writer, musician and dad who spends a lot of his time as Professor Elemental; a steam powered rapper and explorer. When he’s not telling stories he enjoys reading superhero comics and watching spooky movies. You can find more about him here: www.professorelemental.com

Paul has a great sense of humour, is brilliant at doing voices and accents, and enjoys putting a funny spin on a traditional tale. Examples of Paul’s retellings on SGKS include: Rumplestiltskin, The Tinderbox and Frau Holle and this week he brings us 'The Emperor's New Clothes' by Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen.

A vain emperor who is proud of his clothes is swindled by two tricksters who claim they can make a magnificent suit which is invisible to anyone who is not wise and clever. Afraid of the bullying emperor, everyone pretends to admire his invisible clothes, until an honest little girl speaks the truth.......... Listen to Paul and be royally entertained.