Telling the children in your life compelling stories shouldn’t be hard. They already love you, so they’ll be strongly predisposed to appreciate your tales. Even if you’re convinced you were somehow born without even one creative gene, your young audience is almost sure to disagree.

But as with anything, your stories are most likely to succeed if you follow a few tried and true storytelling rules.

“Before my son discovered TallTales Audio and other audio stories he used to wake up at 6 a.m. and then wake us up. Now he just puts on a favorite story C.D. and lets my wife and I sleep another hour.”
—Ely Newman, Dad,
Berkeley, Ca

Choose from these exciting, original kids’ audio stories.

Clem the Detective Dog
Ralphie The Gopher
Sheriff Daisy & Deputy Bud
Rainbow of the Sioux
The Monotonia Chronicles
Tibbodnock Stories
Fiona the Smart Ghost
Ivan the Not-So-Terrible
Nikki the Invisible Girl
Sarabel to the Rescue

Storytelling Tips

Listen to storytelling podcasts (fun for parents and kids) or subscribe to free TallTales Audio podcasts at the iTunes Store.

Storytelling Tips for Parents

Hear tips from TallTales Audio storyteller, Jake Warner

Click on the yellow button to your right to hear storytelling tips from Jake Warner. You can subscribe to podcasts of “Storytelling Tips from TallTales Audio” at the iTunes Store. You can also download or listen to the podcasts here. Or if you prefer to read them, you can click on the "Read Tip" link.
Listen to Tip No 1: The YoYo On The Wall — Read Tip No 1
Listen to Tip No 2: Throw In Another Bear — Read Tip No 2
Listen to Tip No 3: Tell an Old New Story — Read Tip No 3
Listen to Tip No 4: Use Your Scrapbook — Read Tip No 4
Listen to Tip No 5: Every Pet Has A Secret Life — Read Tip No 5
Listen to Tip No 6: Quack Like a Duck — Read Tip No 6

1) Keep it simple.
Especially for younger children, short and sweet is best. For example, a four- or five-year-old will love a drama about the misadventures of Suzy the Dinosaur when she tries to chew bubblegum for the first time. There is no need to toss in a killer spider, two dragons, or a rocket ship to Mars.

2) Practice.
On an inspired evening, you may be able to think up and tell an almost perfect story to the cheers of your small audience. But most days, you’ll do far better if you think up the broad outline of your story in advance — and you’ll further improve your chances of hitting a home run if you practice telling it a time or two to yourself.

3) Prefer action to explanations.
Take a moment to watch kids’ cartoons and you’ll see that if the Road Runner stages an exciting escape from the coyote by parachuting off a mountain cliff, few kids will ask who packed the parachute. Similarly, to best hold your audience you’ll want to focus on the gripping parts. Any kid who wants more background will ask for it.

4) Repetition is good.
Small children, especially, often demand to hear favorite stories over and over. To keep yourself sane, it can be a good plan to create new adventures for much beloved characters. Thus Ben and Bess, the circus kids, might eventually perform every act under the Big Top. But as old friends face new adventures, you’ll want to respect your audience’s desire that they stay in character. Thus Ben and Bess might start every new drama by performing their world famous routine consisting of perfectly synchronized back flips through flaming rings.

5) Pick subjects your kids like.
Ballet, basketball, fire engines, rainbow princesses, or catching a grandpa fish – the key to success is pitching your story to your audience’s sweet spot.

6) Put the kids at the center of the action.
In the wonderful world of a child’s imagination, an eight- or ten-year-old really can lead the Sioux on a buffalo hunt, dance a lead role with the Bolshoi, or hit the home run that finally lead the Cubs to World Series victory. Let them do it.

7) Make the details colorful.
To inspire your listeners’ visual imagination, paint a detailed verbal picture. For example, it’s more interesting to hear “they ate their ham and frog legs sandwiches” than “they ate their lunch,” or “the witch got into her rusty pink pickup” rather than “she got into her car.”

8) Toss in another bear.
If, when telling a bear story, your audience loses interest, toss in another bear — or better yet, two. Fortunately, this simple approach works equally well for tales about dragons, witches, fairies, and Martians.

9) Make every listener a star.
If your six-year-old daughter Becky loves bugs, she is almost sure to be riveted by a story about Bebe the Bug Collector, who just happens to look a lot like her. My 20-something daughter still talks fondly about her fascinated identification with Rainbow, the heroic girl who tumbled off an 1840’s wagon train and grew up with the Sioux.

10) Leave them hanging.
No matter the medium, dramas told in installments are universally popular. You’ll know your timing is spot on when, after a particularly exciting episode, a little voice pipes up, “Oh, you can’t stop now, you just can’t.”

11) Become a bear.
No matter how limited your theatrical skills, your kids will appreciate your making an effort to change your voice to distinguish your main characters. This can be as simple as adopting different tones for a papa, mama, and baby bear. You’ll know that this simple technique is engaging your listeners’ imaginations when one of them says, “Grandpa, Grandpa — don’t forget that Papa Bear always growls twice in a very deep voice before he tries to steal the honey.”

12) Incorporate your kids’ suggestions.
Especially with serials, kids will often suggest their own plot elaborations. “Mom, what would happen if Eliza ran into a huge snake?” No matter how silly or off-putting their idea, put your story-creating imagination to work. When eventually you figure out a creative way to work in a snake, you’ll allow Eliza – and, by extension, your child — to confront a fear or experience a fantasy.

13) Make each character distinctive.
Your story will be more interesting if each character has something that makes him or her special, weird, or sympathetic. Think about Pooh Bear’s fondness for honey, Anne of Green Gables’ tendency to make terrible mistakes, or the Lone Ranger’s mask.

14) Give biography a try.
Some kids are riveted by adventures from your childhood, such as the time you pulled the scout master’s tent over or fell off the horse at the big equestrian event. This makes sense, since the children you care about care about you and your exciting, poignant, and (assuming you’re game) embarrassing moments.

©2007 TallTales Audio