Some of the following items are available on Amazon, but they are Oriental Trading Company items and are best bought through that source. (SurLaLune is not an Oriental Trading Company affiliate either. Links to OTC are purely for your convenience.)
These were more finger puppets to share for this week's unofficial theme, albeit mostly generic fairy tale figures, but still cute. Especially the Frog Prince.
Fairy Tale Finger Puppets: Create a magical puppet show with these vinyl puppets! Featuring frog princes, kings, knights, wizards and other fantasy story favorites, your fingers will love these mythical little characters!
And while we're here, I will share a few more items on OTC:
Fairy Tale Rubber Duckies: Fairy Tale Rubber Duckies. Tell tall tales with these vinyl duckies! Dressed like kings, queens, knights, horses and other fantasy characters, these duckies are great for pretend play! (I love the Fairy Godmother Duck best. And I own these and they are just as cute in person.)
Fairy Tale Fantasy Enamel Charms: Make the bracelet of your dreams! Includes queens, frogs, kings, castles, dragons and crowns. (I really would have loved these when I was six years old.)
Fairy Tale Fantasy Stencils: Write and illustrate your own story with characters straight from classic fairy tales. (This set has a lot more flexibility and more recognizable fairy tales in it, especially Cinderella and Frog Prince. I think these might be snuck onto my next Oriental Trading order...)
And now I'm imagining a fairy tale themed birthday party...
For your Friday amusement: Red Riding Hood Restroom Signage.
Yes, you can buy this on Etsy from bathroomsigns. Beware that the other signs are of varying taste levels and are not fairy tale themed. But this was too good not to share...
In updating the sidebars on this blog--mostly with fun Amazon widgets of new releases coming out in 2010--I've also expanded and started anew the poll at the bottom of the page: What is your favorite fairy tale(s)?
I am keeping it open for all of 2010, but results are limited to one voting per IP address or computer--haven't looked closely but I know I can only vote once--so the results aren't skewed too much.
This is one of those questions that appears periodically from students and others on the SurLaLune Discussion Board. The poll is not rigid, but it is a little more scientific. I always enjoy seeing the results myself. And then I compare them with the traffic stats I have to various tales on SurLaLune--they rarely match up. Which means most of my readers here are lovers of tales.
I've been having a tempermental internet connection all week, so if you have sent an email, I have hopefully received it and will reply in the next few days. Never hurts to try to send it to me again either.
Today I share an article about a storyteller in Ventura County, California: A tale to tell Local performance artist is building a community one story at a time by Michel Cicero. Primarily about Elaine Muray and her Ventura Village Voices Adult Storytelling Series, I am quoting the passages about story and narrative that are well-shared in the middle of the article. I used to live near the edge of Ventura County and this is one of those opportunities that makes me wistful about living there. Although I really can't complain since I'm just a few hours away from the National Storytelling Festival.
Scientific studies have confirmed what lovers of storytelling have always known: The human brain utilizes information more effectively when it’s received in narrative form. Much the same way it’s easier to remember information in verse, story form allows for better retention and comprehension. Muray even uses it as a trick to help with mundane tasks like remembering a day’s worth of errands. “I make a little story out of it, and I remember it all.” She says.
“People connect more to narrative than facts. We are hardwired for it.”
In some ways storytelling is as unlikely as likely a pursuit for Muray given the complete absence of it from her childhood — she wasn’t read to as a child. “A lot of storytellers have a vast foundation in stories that I didn’t have so I have to spend time at the library.” One such visit, she had a half hour to kill so she picked up a Chinese folk tale about a girl that was so small her father never noticed her. “I started to get teary eyed,” she recalled. “That simple folk tale resonated with me and my life, so sometimes people can’t hear when they are given facts . . . Grimm’s fairy tales are all about teaching safety.”
While she works with children and believes strongly in the benefits of narrative for learning comprehension and appreciation for reading, she says it’s the adults who must pave the way. “A lot of people think of storytelling as being for kids, but some of the best I’ve heard is geared toward adults. I think adults have to catch the fire in order to take their kids to events,” she says.
Manhattan Toy has a few finger puppet sets with fairy tale themes. Alas, my favorite set by them is now out of production as well as a few others, but three of the sets are still readily available.
Cinderella This set is fine, but I always feel the need for more characters with this one and have supplemented it with puppets from other sets when I've used it so I can have two ugly stepsisters along with the stepmother provided here.
Three Little Pigs I like that the pigs hold their building materials in their hands in this one. Clever.
Little Red Riding Hood I like this set since it gives us two versions of the wolf and leaves out the woodcutter. With the set limited to four characters, I think this was a great choice.
Is anyone surprised that these are the ones still in production? No, me neither.
My favorite, you ask? The Three Billy Goats Gruff. This tale works well with finger puppets and the set was quite adorable. I also appreciated that the middle goat was a sister with the oldest and youngest as brothers. It brought some fun dimension to the tale. And, yes, they are out of production, but you may be able to find them somewhere online.
The company also produced Jack and the Beanstalk and Hansel and Gretel once upon a time, but they have been retired, too.
Lilliputiens is a toy company in Belgium that sells some of their toys in the states. The company reminds me of Manhattan Toy which I will feature later this week.
I know of a few fairy tale themed toys produced by the company, one of which I found when exploring Bordeaux, France a few years ago. John and I were walking along a street when I looked over and saw this first set in a toy store window. I fell in love and flirted with them when we were supposed to meet my parents at a cathedral further along the way, so finally John bought them as an early Christmas present. Snow White is not one of my favorite tales--although I've come to appreciate it more and more in the past few months--but I am happy I have this set.
Marionnettes À Doigts: Blanche Neige et les 7 Nains by Lilliputiens. This is not my set, but an image I found on the web. They don't appear to be in production anymore, but can perhaps be found through some international sellers. I think they are adorable even if they do borrow a little from Disney's versions of the characters.
I found these listed on Amazon.fr. Lilliputiens Les 3 Cochons Petits Love these, too. Like the way the pigs match their houses.
And finally, Le Petit Chaperon rouge which I also found on Amazon.fr. They are my least favorite of the three sets here, but still worth showing.
