Storyteller Priscilla Howe has some advice for young Iola Elementary School students.
If you want to tell a story with a jump scare, slow down as you approach the key moment. Speak very… very… carefully using a soft, low voice. Go very quietly. Pause. Then… JUMP!
Howe, a storyteller from Lawrence, met with IES students from kindergarten through eighth grade on Thursday to tell a variety of stories. Some were funny. Some were supernatural, featuring ghosts and the undead. All were entertaining.
Howe told her stories with support from her puppets. Trixie, age 101, took time out of her busy schedule of eating tuna fish sandwiches in a duffel bag. A much younger Baby puppet showed off its Halloween costume, which was a pacifier with a mustache… or is it a soul patch when flipped upside down? Either way, it makes kids laugh, especially the “pop” sound Howe makes when Baby spits it out.
As a child, Howe always enjoyed making weird sounds with her mouth. She liked to tell stories using different voices. Turns out, it’s possible to make a career out of a bag filled with puppets and a head filled with ideas, as she has described it.
Howe is a former children’s librarian who became a full-time storyteller in 1993. She has traveled to 14 countries on four continents to tell stories. In 2015, she spent five months in Bulgaria on a Fulbright Scholarship.
She performs at schools, libraries and other places and occasionally teaches classes and workshops, and coaches other storytellers.
Howe visited Iola as part of the Iola Reads program. This year’s Young Adult Selection is a ghost story, “The Girl in the Locked Room.”
At the end of her program, Howe advised students to go home and share her stories with their families.
She varies her stories based on her audience, spending more time with puppets for younger students. The older kids get the spookiest tales.
During a presentation at IES, the third-, fourth- and fifth-graders got a little bit of everything.
She started with “Who’s Afraid,” a short story by Philippa Pearce. It’s a story about a young boy who’s afraid to attend a 100th birthday party for his great-grandmother, because he knows his cousin is going to bully him. In the end, he finds the most unexpected protector.
She then led the students in a singalong to “Oh My Darling, Frankenstein,” a twisted take on the classic “Clementine” version. The chorus includes the lyrics: “You were lost and gone forever. Dreadful sorry, Frankenstein.”
“The Ghost With the One Black Eye” is her most requested story, and is one of four stories she tells featuring The Baby and its family.
If the students wanted to hear more, they could attend a community presentation Thursday evening at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. 
She left the students with a final piece of advice:
