Welcome to The Storied Forest!

Welcome to the Storied Forest Newsletter! For our inaugural post, I wanted to share with you my dream behind the channel: for us to rediscover the joy of reading together. My favorite part of being a teacher and literacy specialist is fostering a love of reading as a shared experience, and now, I am thrilled to share the magic of stories with all of you. In a world so often fragmented, it is the tapestry of shared stories that binds us together.

It was so wonderful getting to meet many of you at the Carroll Park Fair this past month, where the Storied Forest made its East Coast debut. The magic of seeing children’s faces light up hearing my stories, and even (maybe especially!) seeing the grins on adult faces as they had a story read to them, are moments of pure magic. Some of us are lucky enough to have a parent or caregiver read us bedtime stories when we are young, or have a favorite librarian who makes books come alive as a special experience. But as we grow older, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for us to be read to, although some may have the joy of sharing stories with their own children, or students. The moment of hearing those words “once upon a time” can lull us back to a time where magic really existed— the magic of the connection between storyteller and listener. In fact, oral storytelling has been around for eons, and it touches a chord of our humanity: to tell our own stories, and give others the tools to create their own. 

These are actually the origins of the forest – my love of storytelling, my love of writing, illustrated by people dear to me, and even the musical riff was written by my sister-in-law, Jasmine! The stories are inspired by family and friends— little nuggets I’m excited to share with you all in upcoming issues of this newsletter. It’s been so special getting to share bits of stories with close friends and family in person, and now I can’t wait to share them with all of you, wherever you are. We’re only just beginning!

Thank you so much for signing up for this newsletter, it means so much to be able to share stories I love with people I care about

We hope you enjoy our latest story, “Meet Fen,” dedicated to all our friends and family in the Bay Area!

Love,

Lauren