Kids' Storyscapes: Narratives Through Their Eyes

Kids' Storyscapes: Narratives Through Their Eyes

​I encourage my students to publish their own picture books during their summer vacations. Some of my students who are talented and passionate about picture book publishing have produced some wonderful results.

​I will title this project 'Kids' Storyscapes: Narratives Through Their Eyes' and plan to make a series of children's results. When I learned storytelling in Adelphi graduate school, I was convinced that storytelling is an essential and powerful source of life for children. If children create their own stories, they will gain best friends for life. They will not be lonely or tired because there will always be a friend by their side to listen to their stories. I have found that storytelling is very helpful for children to express their feelings and thoughts and discover their own values. This is more powerful than simply reading a lot of books. At first, children have difficulty writing their own stories. This is because they mostly listen to their parents read books or read books written by other authors in the library. In other words, they are passively exposed to storytelling. However, I personally think that storytelling is a very dynamic and active concept. This is something that we need to help children create their own stories and find their own path. Children may write in a mess at first or show unsatisfactory results, but as time goes by, they learn how to connect all their scenes and create a wonderful story. I became convinced of this as I wrote the story with my child.

​As I create stories with children, I find that children find ways to weave their own experiences and problems into meaningful value as they tell stories. Therefore, storytelling should be actively encouraged.

​Looking back, I remember my childhood before the Internet, so I mostly played around with storytelling. There was a new story every day, and there were kids who would tell it and listen to it. I still vividly remember some of the stories I made back then.

​And I am sure that such storytelling enriched my childhood. I am most grateful for the wonderful children's work I saw this summer.