Priscilla Howe was a children’s librarian in Middletown, Connecticut in 1988 – she got a new boss in 1989 and the rest as they say is history.

“She said, hey I like to do puppets, do you want to learn to use puppets?”

Howe says she was resistant to the idea but after a quick lesson she saw the way the soft characters could delight young and old alike.

Howe is in Salina this week connecting students with storytelling, using her puppets Baby and Trixie to build new bridges to some old tales.

“I use the puppets in between the stories,” she said. “It offers some comic relief and a way to reach kids who are visual learners, kinesthetic learners and oral learners.”

Howe will work this week in Pre-K through 5th grade classrooms and also do writing workshops with older students in six different USD 305 locations.

Howe, who makes her home in Lawrence, has also lived in Bulgaria as a Senior Fulbright Scholar, collecting folktales while she studied at Sofia University.

The full-time storyteller shared her advice for moms and dads who are looking to brush up on entertaining their children, “Try not to rush through it,” she said.

“If you want to be a storyteller, tell stories. If you want to be a better storyteller …tell more stories.”

https://soundcloud.com/ksal-radio/priscilla-howe-ksal-morning-news-12-8-15