F.U.S.E.S.
Fostering Understanding Strengthened & Enriched by Stories

Recently, I asked a few dozen friends and family members, from teen to octogenarian, what stories they remembered enjoying or asking to hear over and over from their earliest years. Globally people realize children do an incredible amount of absorbing, sorting, and building a framework for their lives by early experiences. Stories and experiences from earliest years foster a child’s ability to understand people around them, relationships, experiences, places, differences, values, and choices.

Surprisingly, a few people said not any particular book or story that they remembered mattered most, but the storyteller did; the person who captured their attention and stirred their emotions in telling and reading stories. Think about the expressive voices, faces, and actions that you remember from storytellers. We had a family friend who had a voice so deep it rumbled and echoed easily, and when he told the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff and the Troll who controlled the bridge, we were wrapped in the spell of a true storyteller. We’d ask to hear it every time we visited.

From the people I asked who did remember favorite stories, read to them, or that they read, and series they read over and over, the answers included:

Raggedy Ann and Andy,  Encyclopedia Brown, Choose Your Own Adventure, Wimpy Kid books, Paddington Bear-the five pack, Pokey Little Puppy, Ballerina Bess, Nancy Drew, Planet of the Apes, 101 Dalmatians, The Aristocats, The Seasick Sailor, The Little Engine Who Could, Heidi, Mabel’s Animal Party, Are you My Mother, Eloise books,  Tom Sawyer, The Best Nest, The Babysitters Club, Horton Hears Who, Judy Blume books, The Little Prince, The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, Paddington Books, The Secret Garden, The Hardy Boys, The Education of Little Tree, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Charlotte’s Web, The Gingerbread Man, Golden Books-the whole series, Ferdinand the Bull, Biographies!, David and Goliath, Winnie the Pooh, Five Little Peppers and How they Grew, Peter Pan, Laura Ingalls Wilder Books, The Bobbsey Twins, Owl Moon, How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe-all the Narnia books, Stuart Little, Anne of Green Gables, The Trumpet of the Swan, Black Beauty, Where the Wild Things Are, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Song of the South, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Green Eggs and Ham, Pat the Bunny, Harry Potter series, The Littlest Angel, Madeleine, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Children’s Bible, The Polar Express, The Cat in the Hat, Falling Up, Where’s Waldo, Amelia Bedelia books, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Make Way for Ducklings, A Fly Went By, Beauty and the Beast, Star Wars books, Winnie the Pooh series, Thomas the Train series, Curious George books, The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, Noah’s Ark, Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears, One Fine Day, Ashanti, Little Women, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Snowy Day.

 

Is there anything all these books and series have in common? I think they entertain and teach. Is there a book for children that does not show them something about people, values, and the world?

 

For a personal reflection, see if you can picture the person who told you favorite stories, the person who read to you even when you asked for the same story over and over, the first books you could read on your own, and see what the reader, the story-teller, or the books taught you that helped you make some sense of the world.

 

When my father came home from his tour of duty, I was three and did not warm up to having this man in the house easily. He took Mom’s attention. Whether he knowingly tried to make a bridge to me or not, he started telling me stories from the Bible every night before I had to go to bed, and when my brothers came along, the nighttime story routine found us all listening and watching our own dramatic storyteller. In the service, Dad had learned to drop to the ground in an instant, even face forward without breaking his nose. When he told about David’s fight with Goliath, and the giant fell, he’d fall face forward and we would gasp. We knew all the stories he told us, but his dramatic telling and acting helped imprint those tales in our hearts and minds.

 

I learned to value stories, to listen to people’s stories, to wonder about their stories, and to love stories. I learned that God started all the stories but people had the freedom to choose what to do with the storyline God had given them. I learned that love was the most powerful force in the world even when very little of it appeared; sometimes we don’t read or hear a happy ending, but like the Choose Your Own Adventure series, we can affect and create stories for the better. Stories have sparked and illuminated understanding for me and have definitely enriched my life.

 

Please feel free to share some story reflections of your own in the comments.

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