Wondrous Tales
Michael Litzky, Storyteller
Video Clips
Contents
For Younger Viewers
NEW STORY! The Haunted House: a Silly Ghost Story
The Dragon Earns His Name
Elsa and the Evil Wizard
Francesca Learns to Fly
For All Ages
NEW STORY! Wiley and the Hairy Man
Coyote and the Wonderful News
Crick and Crack
Grandmother Spider Steals the Sun
Rapunzel: An Original Telling
Wisdom or Luck
Live Performances
Ardenwood Historic Farm, 8/2/10
For Younger Viewers
The Haunted House: a Silly Ghost Story
Here's a tale that the kids love around Halloween time. Kids aren't scared of the ghost at all because the ghost is scared of them (after all, ghosts are made of clouds, how could a ghost hurt you?). Copyright (c) 2010 by Michael Litzky
Back to list of stories (Video playing jerkily? Click the "HD" in lower right of video and it will restart in lower resolution.)
The Dragon Earns His Name
I made up this story for some of the preschools where I'm the regular weekly storyteller. By the way, the "Wise One" sock puppet was made by my mother when I was a kid. Copyright (c) 2010, Michael Litzky.
Elsa and the Evil Wizard
I found this Swedish folk tale in a collection called The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales from Around the World
Francesca Learns to Fly
A baby flying squirrel learns to fly. Copyright (c) 2010, Michael Litzky.
For All Ages
Wiley and the Hairy Man
It seems that every storyteller has a version of this African American tale. I can't even remember who I first heard it from but you can find it in The People Could Fly
Back to list of stories (Video playing jerkily? Click the "HD" in lower right of video and it will restart in lower resolution.)
Coyote and the Wonderful News
The many native American tales of Coyote the trickster inspired me to make up my own. Copyright (c) 2010, Michael Litzky.
Crick and Crack
I first heard this Irish tale more than 20 years ago from a friend of the family. The faerie people in the story are not cute little elves with pointy hats. They are a proud and ancient people and a mortal who has dealings with them never knows what might happen...
Grandmother Spider Steals the Sun
My adaptation of a story that has its origins in several Native American cultures, including Muskogee and Cherokee. It's a perfect example of a "Pourquoi" story, a story which tells how something came to be. I first heard it from storyteller Mary Ellen Hill, who found it in Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac's Keepers of the Earth
Rapunzel: An Original Telling
The Grimm Brothers' version of this story is, well, grim. One day I was reading Max Lüthi's Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales
Wisdom or Luck
I adapted this from a story in the Pantheon collection Yiddish Folktales
Live Performances
8/2/10: At Ardenwood Historic Farm for Park'n It Day Camp
In this first part, I tell a true story from Ardenwood's history. Note: in all three videos there is noise from the wind and you'll hear the occasional chicken cluck. Ardenwood is a working historic farm. In fact, if you look carefully, you'll see chickens strutting around in the background a few times. But I loved telling at Ardenwood. The place is a miracle: even though it's in the elbow where two freeways meet, it's quiet and peaceful (chickens notwithstanding). You feel like you're in an island of peace from the last century. It's a great place to take kids.
Part 2: The first half of "The Wolf Who Had No Story," an original puppet tale based on an old Irish legend.
Part 3: The final half of "The Wolf Who Had No Story."
All site content © 2010, Michael Litzky