Hello and welcome to Super Great Kids Stories.
Wise tales from storytellers around the world which will make you laugh and sometimes cry.
Recommended for ages 5 to 105.
I'm Kim and I love stories.
Hello Super Great Kids.
Today we have not one but two stories told by veteran storyteller from Northern Ireland, Liz Weir.
The first is The Mermaid's Gift and the second is How skunk got its smell.
And how are you, super great kids?
I hope you've had a happy week and you're making some new friends if you started school recently.
One of the great things about school and homeschooling is that it helps you to learn to read, which is such a magical thing.
I'm very happy because our first book is published in the UK today.
It has 30 of your favourite stories, like Anansi and Baba Yaga and, of course, the Ghost of the Bloody Finger.
It's illustrated with pictures by artists from around the world.
We're very pleased with it.
Story Owl is particularly tickety-boo because she's on the front cover.
If you'd like to support us and buy or pre-order a copy of our book, go to the news section on our website supergreatkidsstoriescom, and click on the link.
The book will be published in early November in the US and in December in Australia and New Zealand.
And hopefully other countries around the world will follow soon.
It'll be available from publisher Bloomsbury and bookshops like Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, independent bookshops and also online on Amazon.
Thanks to all of you super great listeners for helping us by telling me your favourite stories so we could decide which stories to include.
I hope you enjoy the book.
Happy reading!
And our bag of happies is brimming over this month because it's nearly our fifth birthday.
And as you might know, we are having a show to celebrate.
So I'm really looking forward to telling stories with Kate Corkery and two in London in just over a week, on September the 20th.
The best thing about the show is that we get to meet some of you in person.
Do come and say hello to us if you're lucky enough to be able to come.
Tickets are available on our website under the news section.
We'd love to meet you.
And for those of you who live a long way from London, in countries all over the world, Jason Buck and Amy Douglas and me are getting together online to celebrate and share stories on September the 14th.
So we can wave hello to you and you can show us your pictures and you can watch Jason making his amazing sound effects.
Just before we hear this week's stories, here's a little question for you to think about, while we have a quick word with the grown-ups.
If you were telling a story to a friend, which story do you think you'd tell?
It needs to be an easy to remember one, so choose one you like and know quite well.
Last week's story from Amy about the wide-mouthed frog is a very good one to start with.
Funny and easy to tell.
Or maybe an easy fairy tale that you already know.
One like Goldilocks and the Three Bears or Stick Woman.
Anyway, have a think while we talk to the grown-ups.
Ready?
Off you go.
Hello, super great kids.
I'm back.
I wonder which story you decided you'd like to tell.
Maybe you could try telling it after listening to this week's stories.
Now let's give a very warm welcome to Liz Weir, who lives in beautiful County Antrim in Northern Ireland.
Liz is going to start now. with a magical sea story which is set on the coast near where she lives.
Hello super great kids.
My name is Liz Weir and I work as a storyteller.
I live in Northern Ireland.
I have a way out in the country with trees and sheep and fields, but I tell stories from all around the world and today I'm going to tell you not one, two stories, and i'm going to tell you one of my favorite stories.
It comes from beside the sea.
There were two friends.
One was called mary and one was called bridget.
They went to school together, they played together, but oh, they were so different.
Mary was such a good girl, she always did exactly what she was told.
But bridget, oh dear bridget, If Bridget's mummy said, wear your blue dress, she'd wear her pink dress.
If Bridget's mummy said, come home at 7 o'clock, she'd come home at 7.30.
She was always getting Mary into trouble.
One day, the two of them were playing on the beach, not far from where they lived.
And Mary looked up and saw the sun was going down and she said, we have to go home now.
No, I don't want to go home.
I want to stay.
Come on, I'm not going to get into trouble over you.
Come on.
And they started walking up the path from the beach, up the cliff path.
Mary stopped and said, shh, listen, can you hear it?
So they stopped and they listened and they heard the most beautiful singing.
And when Mary peeped through the rocks, there on a big rock sat a lady with long hair right down her back.
Round her neck, she had seashells, she had seaweed in her hair and when they looked at her beautiful dress, all shining and shimmery, they gasped.
Because this lady didn't have legs or feet, she had a tail, because she was a mermaid.
''You've a lovely voice, so you have,'' said Mary.
The mermaid jumped in shock.
She wasn't used to people speaking to her like that.
She was used to people trying to steal her away.
You have, said Bridget.
Please sing some more, said Mary.
And the mermaid sang.
Happy songs, sad songs, songs of shipwreck, songs of adventure.
And as she sang, the sun was going down and she noticed something sparkling in her lap.
And in her lap, She had pearls, rubies, diamonds, emeralds.
She had necklaces and earrings.
She had all the treasures of the sea.
She said girls, it's time you were going home, but I want to give you each a present, a gift to take home and share with your whole family.
Don't stop on the way home.
This is a gift that needs to be shared.
And she lifted up two bags of spun silver thread.
And into each bag she put pearls and rubies and diamonds and emeralds, all those treasures of the sea.
One to Mary, pearls, rubies, diamonds, emeralds.
One to Bridget.
Now remember, don't stop on the way home.
Oh, thank you, said Mary.
No, thanks, said Bridget.
And off they set home.
Halfway home, Bridget stopped.
There's nothing in this bag.
This bag's empty.
Come on.
She said.
We weren't to stop, i'm going to look, i'm not.
And bridget tipped up the bag and out came a stream of silver sand.
Go and open your bag.
No, mary ran for home.
She ran right into her house.
There was her granny, her mother, her sister, her big brother.
Her father was a fisherman.
He was out at sea.
She tipped the bag up onto the table And out came pearls and rubies and diamonds and emeralds, just as the mermaid had given them to her.
She explained the story and how this had to be shared with her whole family.
So they talked and they decided to buy a big new fishing boat for her father to use with his brothers to earn a lot of money for the family.
And then they made...
Quite a lot of money and they bought a restaurant up on the cliff top where they sold all the lovely seafood that the fishermen brought in.
And they called that restaurant the Mermaid's Gift, for that was what it had been.
Oh, thank you for that, Liz.
What a great story.
I wonder what you and your family might have spent the money on.
Do you think you could ask your grown-ups what they think they'd do with some mermaid's treasure?
You might like to tell that mermaid's story yourself.
Or you might prefer a How and Why story, like this one which Liz is going to tell you now.
Now, I'm going to tell you a story that I first heard coming from the United States.
Now, there's a competition in this story, but there's no prizes.
Just let's see if you can guess the name of the animal in this story.
A long time ago, there was a strange looking animal.
He was covered from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail with long, white, silky hair.
As he walked through the forest, he'd be tossing his hair and looking at himself in pawns and saying I'm so beautiful.
I'm so lovely.
There's no animal as lovely as me.
None of the other animals could stand him.
But as he was walking through the forest, he felt hungry.
And he looked up and he saw a mother owl fly out of her nest.
He thought, happy day's food time.
And he climbed up the tree and in the nest were three baby owls.
So he reached in and he lifted one out and he said you are so ugly and i am so beautiful, i wouldn't even eat you.
He dropped it back into the nest and he climbed down the tree.
Well, the mother owl came back with her mouth all full of nice tasty grubs and worms for her baby, and this is what she heard.
She said what's wrong?
What is wrong?
They were crying so hard.
She couldn't hear what was wrong.
An animal came and he said we were ugly.
She said, my baby's ugly.
You're beautiful.
You're mummy's wee pets.
Who said that about you?
An animal with white fur.
All right, she said.
I don't know who you mean.
Listen, mummy has to go and do a message.
Eat up your grubs and worms.
Mummy will be back.
Boys and girls, have you ever seen a really gross mummy?
She was so mad.
Somebody had said something about her.
She came out like a dive bomber, swooped down through the forest.
She picked up that creature with her lovely long talons and she shook him.
She thought, what can I do with you?
There was a place in the forest where there'd been an old bonfire and all the ashes were still hot and blackened.
She thought, right.
And she pulled him through the hot ashes one way.
She turned him over, she pulled him through the hot ashes the other way and she dropped him into a pond.
When he came out.
Oh, you should have seen him from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail.
On one side his fur had been singed black.
From the tip of his nose, the tip of his tail and the other side.
His fur had been singed black and the only bit of white was a white stripe going from his head to his tail.
And I'm wondering if you can guess what that animal's called these days.
Well, I'll tell you.
From now on, that animal was called the skunk.
And what do people most know about a skunk?
They know about a smell and that's the smell of the burnt fur as he was pulled through the fire.
Thanks very much to Liz Weir for that story.
I related to that very cross mummy owl.
Mummies get very upset when someone is unkind to their children.
In West Africa there's a saying, every frog is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother.
Did you manage to guess the animal in that how and why tale?
Perhaps you could tell a different version of that same story and think up your own reason why a skunk has a bad smell.
If you liked listening to those stories, you can find them and others in Liz's book Here, There and Everywhere.
Stories from Many Lands.
Now, it's time to say hello to some owlets who've recently joined our storytelling club.
So let's spread our wings and fly around the world with StoryOwl to meet them.
Let's begin by flying to Bangalore in India to greet Owl at Pridan, who is eight.
His favourite stories are Molly and the Skeleton, The Village of the Fools and, of course, The Ghost of the Bloody Finger.
And now let's fly all the way to Wellington in New Zealand to greet Owl at Finn, who will be six in a couple of weeks' time.
Finn's favourite stories are all the ones with Baba Yaga.
Good choice, Finn.
Crunchy, munchy, yum, yum, yum.
Hope you have a happy day.
And let's head to Europe now, to beautiful Denmark, to greet Owlet Liliana, who is six.
Liliana has been listening to the stories for three years.
Wow, that's loyal listening for you.
And she really likes the story from Ireland, Eve of the Selkie Folk.
Yes, selkie stories are beautiful and often sad.
I agree, Juliana.
And across to the US next.
Let's fly up to Seattle in Washington, to greet Owlets Carlos, who is seven Ruben, who is five, and Nava, who is one and a half.
Their favourite story is The Ghost of the Bloody Finger.
And a big hello to Owlets Evan and Sydney from California.
They happened to be on holiday in Northern Ireland and they met Liz Weir's friend Claire, on the Giant's Causeway, where she was being a guide and sharing Irish folktales with them.
Evan and Sydney explained to Claire that they knew all about Finn McCool from their favourite storyteller on Super Great Kids Stories, Kate Corkery.
They were amazed when Claire told them that she knows Kate Corkery too.
It's a small world, especially the world of Irish storytellers.
And that's it for Owlet Welcomes this week.
We really appreciate your support.
More welcomes next week and do keep telling your stories.
Our Pick of the Week picture goes to nine-year-old Ivy from Melbourne in Australia for her wonderful picture of Eggshell Soup.
The story about the fairy changeling told by Kate Corkery.
We love your nasty little green changeling standing by his cot demanding whiskey and tobacco.
And all the details, like the hot fire, with the poker standing nearby, ready to chase away the changeling and the cow looking in the window from the field outside.
Thanks for sharing your picture, Ivy.
It's super great.
Send your drawings to facebookcom forward slash supergreatkidsstories or to our website, supergreatkidsstoriescom.
Just scroll to the bottom and you'll find the place and Story Owl will reply to you.
Thanks to all of you who are subscribing to our podcast.
We really appreciate those of you who feel you can support us on Apple or on Patreon.
It helps us to pay our storytellers and it gives you access to all the super great scary stories.
And depending on your level of subscription, you get over 50 bonus stories too.
Plus, you'll get access to our Super Great Kids Stories Express, which cuts straight to the story.
Great for listening to stories back to back in the car.
That's it for now.
Remember, you'll get a discount if you order our super great book before it's published in your country and you'll be helping us to get the book noticed and share all those lovely traditional tales with more super great kids.
You'll find the discount link in the news section on our website.
Thanks for your support.
Keep telling your stories and singing your songs.
Have a happy week.
This podcast was produced by Kim Normanton and David Smith at Wardour Studios in fabulous Fitzrovia in London.
