First Things First

My very first book was The Talking Bird and the Story Pouch. (Harper and Row 1987) The Storyteller really does not want to go out and collect stories, although that is his job. He'd MUCH rather go fishing.

Amy Lawson was my name then; it is Amy Gordon now, but that is another story. Many people know very clearly what soil their families are rooted in. But my grandmother on my father's side--we called her Ooma--never quite told us the same story about where she came from. Somewhere in Eastern Europe. What I do know is that she was an amazing storyteller, and judging from this old photograph, she must have loved fishing, too.

My grandmother, Dorothy Gordon, sang folk songs for children all around the world. She was the “Song and Story Lady” on the Children’s Corner, where she narrated and dramatized folk stories. In 1939 she produced Yesterday’s Children, a program that featured the favorite childhood books of a famous person. After telling or dramatizing the story, my grandmother would have that week’s guest explain why he or she had loved that story as a child.
         Ooma also had her own TV show called "Dorothy Gordon's Youth Forum." She always insisted that the Youth Forum include children from all racial, religious, and social backgrounds. She invited an adult “expert” on each program. Among the illustrious guests were Averell Harriman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Golda Meir, Norman Thomas,William O. Douglas, and Ralph Bunche.
          Ooma had also met A.A. Milne, the creator of the Winnie the Pooh books, and when we were kids, I think that made us a feel especially connected to books we already loved.
 
E.H. Shepard's illustration from Winnie-the-Pooh (original version from 1926)

In the Talking Bird and the Story Pouch the Storyteller finally goes out and starts telling stories, but the Kulloo-Makoo comes along and steals his words and eats them. As you can see, he has a very big belly full of words. (Craig Brown was the illustrator, and I believe that was his first book.) The Kulloo-Makoo is based on a Native American story:

It is only safe to tell stories in the winter-time, because that is when the rivers and ponds are frozen; otherwise there is a creature who lives underwater who will come up and steal your stories. I figured he must have large ears to hear with and a big waterproof body.

My family has other storytellers in it, but that is a story for another day.