Press Reviews

• School Library Journal, Nov. 2011 | show/hide snippet

  Storyteller Priscilla Howe delights viewers and an audience of youngsters at the Union Pacific Depot in Lawrence, Kansas, with four slightly scary stories and several funny songs. With the help of a few outspoken hand puppets, including Trixie, a gray-haired 111-year-old scatterbrain, and Baby, an adorable, feisty infant, Howe has her audience laughing out loud. She plays the straight man, reacting to the ridiculous utterances and behavior of her two sidekicks. Trixie thinks they have assembled for a train ride and that babysitting involves actually sitting on the baby. The little tyke repeatedly spits out her pacifier with a satisfying “pop,” and offers a spirited rendition of “the itsy bitsy tiger went up the piggy’s snout.” When it is story time, they return to their bag, where they purportedly play poker—and accuse one another of cheating. All four stories involve a mother, a brother, a sister, and a baby. They include “The Ghost with the One Black Eye,” “Chickens!” “At Midnight,” and “Now I’ve Gotcha”—all popular campfire tales. In each, a frightening ghost or monster scares one after another in the family until the fearless baby confronts it and gets the last laugh. Howe’s masterful performance relies on voice changes, body movement, repetition, timing, and audience participation. She is not afraid to look or sound silly, and her baby voice is hilarious. Entertain little ones on Halloween or train big ones in the art of storytelling with this riotous romp.

• Storyteller.net | show/hide snippet

  While Priscilla uses the music and puppets well, she is foremost a storyteller and it shows. This isn’t a puppeteer or a musician using storytelling as a side-note to her presentations. Rather, it’s an internationally-traveled and very talented storyteller intent on delivering great stories to and with her young audience- and you get to come along via the video.