Lost & Found: World Storytelling Day 2022
World Storytelling Day is a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling, held each year on 20 March. The goal is to celebrate the art of storytelling with as many people as possible, both listeners and storytellers.
This year’s theme is Lost and Found. Here are some fantastic stories and resources that are sure to spark your curiosity this World Storytelling Day!
For Kids
Our Animal Friends (2021)
With over 800 animals to search, this charmingly illustrated book combines the classic Look & Find game with plenty of questions and challenges on each page, making for an experience that’s not only entertaining but educational as well. Children will learn the names of various animals and how to count with this entertaining book.
Good Question: A Tale Told Backwards (2020)
A very hungry fox in search of food stumbles into one wrong fairytale after another trying to flee some very high-profile fairytale characters, eventually giving Henny Penny the fright of her life. Have you ever wondered why Henny Penny thought the sky was falling? Well, here’s a story that might just give you the answer. Told from Fox’s point of view, this magical tale links fairy story and nursery rhyme characters in a delightful, funny and quirky way. All Fox wants is a tasty meal to fill his hungry belly. But he keeps wandering into the WRONG stories. No dinner for him – just more trouble! Will Fox ever find the RIGHT story?
Seek & Find Cities: A Globetrotting Adventure (2019)
Join travellers Cat and Bird as they explore the world in this fun search–and–find book. With every turn of the page, there’s a new busy city scene to discover – a colourful carnival in Rio, a funfair in Paris, a treasure-filled souk in Morocco. Our intrepid duo have spent all year planning their amazing trip: a city-hopping tour around the globe! They’ve packed their bags and are ready to go, but they need your help… In each city there are all kinds of things to spot, from tasty festival food and traditional hats to a famous landmark, a unique souvenir and a local animal or two!
Can You Find Me? (2017)
Search for an echidna, a powerful owl, a frog and many more animals hidden on every page.
Pat Shirvington’s striking illustrations hide each one of the animals just enough for the guessing to begin.
For Adults
Boy Swallows Universe [Audiobook] by Trent Dalton (2018)
Brisbane, 1985: A lost father, a mute brother, a junkie mum, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crim for a babysitter. It’s not as if Eli Bell’s life isn’t complicated enough already. He’s just trying to follow his heart and understand what it means to be a good man, but fate keeps throwing obstacles in his way, not the least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer. But now Eli’s life is going to get a whole lot more serious: he’s about to meet the father he doesn’t remember, break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day to rescue his mum, come face to face with the criminals who tore his world apart, and fall in love with the girl of his dreams.
The Family Inheritance [Audiobook] by Tricia Stringer* (2020)
Sometimes an ending is really a beginning. Felicity Lewis’s fiftieth birthday party in her newly renovated home, loving husband and daughter Greta by her side, is going off with a bang when disaster strikes. Her father, Franklyn, with his usual impeccable timing, has keeled over and died. For some members of the family, his wife Hazel for example, Franklyn’s death is not the great loss it first appears to be. But when his toxic and inexplicable will is read out, it becomes clear that long-buried secrets are about to surface, starting with the astonishing reappearance of Hazel’s long-lost sister. Indeed, Franklyn’s death sets in motion a chain of events that will cause three generations of Gifford family women to question everything they hold dear, their relationships, their loyalties, even their identities. Until, that is, they choose to fight back against their dark inheritance.
Bridge of Clay [Audiobook] by Markus Zusak* (2018)
“Let me tell you about our brother. The fourth Dunbar boy named Clay. Everything happened to him. We were all of us changed through him.”
The Dunbar boys bring each other up in a house run by their own rules. A family of ramshackle tragedy – their mother is dead, their father has fled – they love and fight, and learn to reckon with the adult world. It is Clay, the quiet one, who will build a bridge; for his family, for his past, for his sins. He builds a bridge to transcend humanness. To survive. A miracle and nothing less. Markus Zusak makes his long-awaited return with a profoundly heartfelt and inventive novel about a family held together by stories, and a young life caught in the current: a boy in search of greatness, as a cure for a painful past.
Digital resources
FREE with your Western Downs Libraries membership:
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StoryBox Library – including AUSLAN Storytime
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LOTE Online 4 Kids – digital books in over 45 languages
Special event
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Words Out West (Friday 4th March – Saturday 19th March)
Limited tickets remaining!
*These authors are also presenters at Words Out West 2022
How will you celebrate this World Storytelling Day?