Puppeteer thrills hundreds of children and teachers in New Delhi schools.
The last rat left in Hamblin tells the famous story of the Pied Piper from a rat’s point of view. A nasty troll threatens to eat trespassers! A crocodile is loose in London!
Sister Jean Slocombe, assisted by her husband Elder Eric Slocombe, performed puppet shows at five schools to over 700 children. She is known in Canada as the Storylady. “Sister Jean” as the children call her, spoke to groups about her love of stories and reading from a young age. She enticed the children to read by recalling wonderful tales from storybooks. “Puppetales” followed a conversation with the children. A nasty troll, the Pied Piper, and Punch and Judy had the children very involved in the shows; laughing and calling out to help or warn the puppets. Most children had never seen a live puppet show with hand puppets and were enthralled with the stories. This was Sister Slocombe’s second year with “Bookaroo”. In 2013, much preparation went into building a puppet theater, and the making and dressing of the puppets. This year there was time to write and include a new story about the “Nasty Troll”.
The annual Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival in New Delhi encourages children to love reading. Writers, illustrators and storytellers from all over India and many other countries as far away as Canada and Australia, performed in November for thousands of children over three days at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.The outreach program, Bookaroo in the City, sent presenters to schools throughout the Capital region for two weeks leading up to the main event.
Elder and Sister Slocombe serve in the India New Delhi Mission in the Mission office and as Perpetual Education/Self-Reliance Missionaries. Their home is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
