When storytime is starting, Jo Croall instructs the students to put on their imagination hats. Croall is the president of the High Prairie Storytellers, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing literacy and building community through oral storytelling.
LONE TREE, Colo. — Imagination hats on, the circle of engaged elementary schoolers leaned closer as they listened to the mysterious incident of a small vegetable hidden under a tower of mattresses.
“Is that real?” asked a skeptical young audience member.
“It might be. Stranger things have happened,” said storyteller Jo Croall.
In addition to volunteering as a storyteller, Croall is the president of the High Prairie Storytellers, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing literacy and building community through oral storytelling.
“I love storytelling, and I think storytelling is something that’s in all of us,” said Croall. “Everybody has a story to tell.”
Colorado Voices
High Prairie Storytellers
Croall grew up in the small New Zealand town of Taihape. She remembers being surrounded by stories and storytellers, many of which were of Maori descent. This inspired her to pursue theater in college and eventually teach high school English and drama.
When Croall moved to the United States with her husband and infant daughter, she looked for opportunities to continue this passion.
High Prairie Storytellers proved the perfect solution. The nonprofit, previously known as Douglas County Spellbinders, operated under the national oral storytelling group Spellbinders.
Priscilla Queen formed the program in 2000 in partnership with the Douglas County Library. Today, the group’s 31 active storytellers serve schools across the state, spreading from Douglas County to El Paso County.
Croall joined in 2019, and for the past five years she has been telling stories to elementary schoolers at Eagle Ridge Elementary in Lone Tree.
However, she sees her storytelling as more of a performance.
“We do not read books. We actually learn stories and then tell our versions of those stories to elementary school students,” said Croall. “So for me, I like to act out the stories.”
In her telling of the English folktale “Lazy Jack,” Croall brought a blanket while performing as the titular character’s older, widowed mother. She placed her hands on her head imitating ears and “hee-hawed!” when playing the donkey.
Croall wore a blanket as a shawl while performing the titular Lazy Jack’s old mother. Photo: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
For storytellers Anne (who uses the storytelling alias “Mrs. Granny”) and Gene (aka “Mr. Gene”) Kozleski, props are central to any appearance.
“You can see with my props that the majority of my stories are fiction,” said Anne. “I made a wolf tail that I wear, I have felt boards… sometimes I bring my friend Socrates.”
Socrates is a sock monkey that tells riddles and knock-knock jokes.
Gene’s stories are more nonfiction focused. He has a homemade Jackie Robinson jersey for telling Robinson’s biography and hand-made maps illustrating Lewis and Clark’s expeditions.
To break the ice, Gene often shows his fourth-grade listeners a black-and-white picture of himself at nine years old.
“They’re all amazed I was actually nine years old at one time,” said Gene. “They really enjoy being able to relate to this old guy here. And I enjoy it too.”
Anne and Gene have been storytelling since 2016. They, too, were looking for community involvement, and with two grandchildren in elementary school at the time, they found High Prairie Storytellers to be the perfect way to spend their post-retirement free time.
Mrs. Granny prefers telling fictional fairy tales, ones which engage the audience’s imagination.
“We use our imaginations all the time,” said Mrs. Granny, “and children need to learn that.”
Mrs. Granny wears a wolf mask for her telling of the Three Little Pigs and the Wolf. Photo: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
“We do spend a lot of time on screens. Kids, particularly, these days,” said Croall. “And I think [storytelling] helps kids to engage their brains in a different way.”
Croall emphasized High Prairie Storyteller’s commitment to telling diverse tales as well. Storytellers of different backgrounds share traditional Native American, African, and Asian stories.
“I tell stories from New Zealand, some Maori myths and legends mixed in there,” said Croall. “We all have something different to bring to the table.”
Croall believes that this exposure to different cultures through story helps broaden young listeners’ perspectives as much as it does their imaginations.
Mr. Gene’s nonfiction stories have proven equally as engaging as they have educational, to the point where some lessons have carried on beyond the story circle.
“The [class] was talking about Teddy Roosevelt one time in class, and [the teacher] mentioned 1919. And one of the kids said that was the year Jackie Robinson was born,” said Mr. Gene. “The teacher was very excited that they were talking about him.”
Mr. Gene holds a puppet he uses for his Lewis and Clark stories. Photo: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
As the Kozlezki’s became more invested in their performances, they realized their storytelling was mutually beneficial. Not only were they activating the imaginations of a few elementary schoolers, but they were exercising their own imaginations as well.
“It’s so invigorating for us, and it’s good for us older people to keep those imagination cells going,” said Anne.
“I leave the classroom walking about two inches off the ground, just because I’m floating in air with the response I get from the children,” said Gene.
“We continue to do this because we know that we’re doing something positive for the children. And we’re also getting something positive out of this.”
Croall shared in the energy and excitement received from speaking with students, and she hopes to continue storytelling for as long as they are willing to listen.
“They’re listening, they’re visualizing, they’re figuring out what might happen next… things that, as adults, we do all the time without even thinking about it,” said Croall. “Storytelling really enhances all of that.”
After finishing her telling of “The Princess and the Pea,” she instructed the students to remove their imagination hats. There were audible moans from the audience.
“I always put mine on,” said one student, referring to her imagination hat. “I never have let go of it in my life.”
Croall plans on storytelling for as long as the Eagle Ridge Elementary schoolers will listen. Photo: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
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