Odds Bodkin, Master Storyteller

Odds Bodkin is an award-winning master talesman and author who has been dazzling listeners young and old for more than fifteen years. He creates magical worlds, from high adventure to light-hearted humor, with amazing character voices, sound effects, and musical instruments. He has recorded fourteen audiocassettes for the Odds Bodkin Storytelling Library, and has authored four children's books. He lives in a small town in New Hampshire with his wife and three children.

FEN: What is storytelling? How is it different from reading a book to your child?

OB: The spoken word is an ancient form of communication between human beings, more ancient than the visual image. Spoken language provides a direct line into the imagination, and allows listeners to marshal images from their own experience to create what I call their "inner television." I've worked with thousands of teachers who all agree that when they put down the book and tell stories to their students, they receive a high level of attention -- one that they experience in no other class situation.

FEN: I'd like to find an alternative form of entertainment to the television, but it has such a powerful presence in our house. Do your kids watch TV?

OB: There has been much discussion lately about turning off the television. Actually, I think that television is a wonderful medium. We own two in my house, which our children are allowed to watch on weekends. I want my kids to be current with their world. It's when parents plunk their children in front of the television without reading and telling stories that they fail to exercise their children's minds sufficiently. Recently, neuroscientists have learned that when children actively use their imaginations, they grow richer sets of "neural nets," the synaptic connections in the neocortex where higher centers of creativity and intelligence are housed. So storytelling is a way of strengthening your child's brain.

FEN: OK. I'd like to start telling stories to my kids. How do I start?

OB: The easiest way is to tell stories starring your children themselves. I was just in Salt Lake City and a woman had a two year old named Wyatt. She asked me if I could hold Wyatt's attention with a story. She put me on the spot. So I told a story about a boy named Wyatt who had a magic button at the bottom of his blue stroller that allowed him to fly, while his mother chased after him trying to get him to land. He smiled and was absolutely charmed, because he was in it. Very young children adore this.

Another way is to tell stories about you -- your memories and family history. Children are endlessly fascinated to know who their parents are and what they experienced as children. With a little practice, you can move from telling stories from personal memory to adding a little fanciful detail and making up stories right off the top of your head.

Start at bedtime. Tucking your child into bed, after the hustle and bustle of the day, is a time when a profound spiritual intimacy between parent and child can take place through telling stories.

FEN: Your stories are so electrifying, with multiple character voices, music and sound effects. My stories wouldn't be nearly as exciting. How do parents overcome their self-consciousness?

OB: I'm a professional storyteller whose job it is to attract the attention of hundreds of young listeners at a time. But if you are telling stories to your child, he or she loves you so much in the first place that just the sound of your voice is enough to command their attention, especially at bedtime. Great stories don't need a lot of pyrotechnics; in fact, I've told stories to my boys for years and never used instruments or even character voices. It would be a bit much to dance around with a harp when your kids are getting ready to go to sleep.

It may not work dandily right away, especially if your child is accustomed to a lot of TV. At first, kids don't understand the terms of the entertainment, but once they begin to imagine, they will fall in love with it, and will want to share in it every night. They'll remember your storytelling forever. Like a garden, it grows love.

Mellisa Paly of Cross Current Productions interviewed Odds. She's a freelance writer, producer, and mother of two based in Kitterypoint, Maine.

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