We've got a delicious story seed on deck for this week's episode as 11 year old Keshav collaborates with author and professional storyteller Bil Lepp (he's a five-time champion of the West Virginia Liars’ Competition and author of the 2014 PEN award-winning picture book, THE KING OF LITTLE THINGS). Together, they stir up an inspired cast of characters —three animals and a big bad wolf!—mix in some sweet treats and a few red hot chili peppers and give us a fractured fairytale titled "Not by the Hare in My Chili Pepper Den!" Join host Betsy Bird as she follows Keshav and Bil on their field trip to Jacques Torres Chocolates, one of NYC’s finest chocolate shops, where they spend a morning “researching” chocolates and chilis, getting to know each other, and growing Keshav's treat of a story idea.
This week’s Story Seeds collaboration brings together 11 year old Keshav and Bil Lepp (professional storyteller, five-time champion of the West Virginia Liars’ Competition and author of the 2014 PEN award-winning The King of Little Things.)
Bil helps Keshav grow this story idea:
Once there was a cow, a bunny and a fox. There was also a bad wolf who liked eating up people's houses. The cow made a house out of ice cream, the bunny made a chocolate egg house and the fox made his house out of red hot chilies. Now the wolf, being very greedy. Loved ice cream. So he went to the cows house and ate it all up and was now ready to eat the cow. The cow got away and ran to the bunny house. The wolf followed him there. And when he got to the bunny house, he said, mm hmm. Delicious chocolate. And so we went and ate at all. Now the bunny and the cow was scared half to death. So they ran to the fox’s house. The wolf was still hungry because he was a big bad wolf. So he, too, went to the foxes house. You took one bite out of the chilies, up out of the chili house and burned his mouth. He ran away, never to be seen again.
Listen along to this Story Seeds adventure with host Betsy Bird as Keshav and Bil:
The episode concludes with this week’s storytime (19:24) where Bil reads the story he grew from Keshav's story seed: Not By the Hare in My Chili Pepper Den .
Stories mentioned in this episode: Three Little Pigs, Henny Penny, Chicken Little, Aesop’s Fables, Anansi Tales, Panchatantra, Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tales, The King of Little Things by Bill Lepp
Calls to Action
Bonus Episode: Check back next week to hear Betsy's interview with Bil. You’ll get to hear what it’s like to be a 21st century storyteller and Bil also shares a few hilarious anecdotes, including one about his former life as a preacher.
Kids: Call The Story Seeds Hotline at 646-389-5153, email us at storyseeds@literarysafari.com, or visit our website to submit your story ideas. You can also join The Story Seeds Society, our kids listeners club.
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Show credits
Produced and written by Sandhya Nankani and Anjali Sakhrani. Our Associate Producer is Kayla Fedeson. Scoring, mixing, and sound design by Ania Grzesik and Matt Boynton of Ultraviolet Audio. Field audio recorded by Nathan Miller. Hosted by Betsy Bird. Music by Andrew VanWyngarden, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/musician and co-founder of MGMT.
The Story Seeds Podcast is a creation and production of Literary Safari www.literarysafari.com