All the Wonders Shares Resources for The Storyteller
Our heartfelt thanks to All the Wonders for all the tremendous resources they put together for sharing and teaching The Storyteller. Explore them...
read moreAudio Glossary for The Storyteller & Teaching Materials
Our thanks to former Moroccan educator Abdelaziz Rhazzali for explaining the Moroccan Arabic words in the picture book and the companion teaching materials! Shukran!
read moreThe Art of ‘The Storyteller’: Behind the Scenes, Part 2
So, you would like to hear the story of how THE STORYTELLER became a book? Ah yes, well, not so long ago… After I figured out the story I wanted to tell, I created a pagination of small thumbnails to decide how I wanted to tell that story in pictures. This helps figure out what images and symbols are important and how to emphasize them throughout the story. Even in the early thumbnails, you can see that the water/bird/yarn/stories were all blue and stood out against the rest of the palette. Along with the pagination, I did many small...
read moreThe People of Morocco in ‘The Storyteller’
Morocco is a country with a long history, and traditions, like storytelling and carpet weaving, that extend back a thousand years. But it is also a modern country in today’s world. As in most countries, the traditional and the new exist simultaneously. The central story in The Storyteller, ‘The Sandstorm and The Storyteller’, about a boy inheriting and using the wisdom of a master storyteller, takes place in modern times. The reader is introduced to the boy in the “Great Square” based loosely on the Jamaa EL Fna...
read moreThe Last Storytellers of Marrakech – By Richard Hamilton
I found him sitting on a mattress in a dark room praying. It had taken days to track him down in the narrow crumbling streets of Marrakech’s medina. Ahmed Temiicha was once the most famous storyteller in Marrakech, but when I met him he was old, frail and had gone blind. He lived in an old house or riad with balconies overlooking an inner courtyard of peeling walls and cracked tiles. I sat down and listened to his stories. His eyes seemed to sparkle as he recounted a long twisting saga called, “The Apples of El-Ghaliya bent Mansour.”...
read moreA letter from Moroccan Storyteller, Mehdi EL Ghaly
As-Salaam-Alaikum! (Peace be unto you) I want to share with you a story about a kid who grew up to be one of his idols. Not long ago, there was a child, a baby boy, who grew up in a traditional Moroccan house in the old medina of Marrakech. He was so energetic that where ever he went he caused a mess. One night his grandmother told him “I want to tell you a story.” She began with the words “Hajitek Majitek,” which mean “Once upon a time” in Moroccan Arabic. The boy started listening, but eventually...
read moreThe Storyteller Book Launch at Books of Wonder
For the launch of The Storyteller, I had the honor of hosting my launch party at the wonderful Manhattan independent children’s bookstore Books of Wonder, and to create a window display for their storefront. I’ve always thought it would be fun to design a stage set, so this was kind of a fun way to dip a toe into that and translate the art from the book into something big and impactful. The pieces were all just made out of corrugated cardboard, paint, and Caran D’Ache crayons. My husband Chris and my cat Bert helped out with...
read more7 Impossible Things Interview with Evan Turk
Julie Danielson at “7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast” interviewed The Storyteller creator Evan Turk about the creation of The Storyteller, upcoming projects, making a picture book, and much more! Take a look to see sketches, thumbnails, and even some ceramics! 7 Impossible Things Interview with Evan...
read more“Visually thrilling” – The Wall Street Journal
The storytelling traditions of Morocco burst into brilliant swaths of gold and lapis lazuli in the visually thrilling pages of Evan Turk’s “The Storyteller” (Atheneum, 48 page, $18.99). Set in modern times, this picture book for 4- to 8-year-olds begins by evoking a past when stories spun by fabulists brought people together with a force as refreshing and life-giving as the kingdom’s many fountains. “But as the kingdom grew and life became easier…,” we read, “the voices of storytellers were...
read more‘The Storyteller’ in Photos – Publisher’s Weekly
Publisher’s Weekly’s “Children’s Bookshelf” recently did a feature photo essay on the creation of ‘The Storyteller’! I talked with them about the inspiration, my trips to Morocco, where I learned some of the techniques, and how the story began! Thank you so much to Natasha Gilmore at PW for reaching out. You can check out a link to see it all below: Evan Turk’s ‘The Storyteller’ In...
read moreThe Storyteller
From Ezra Jack Keats 2015 New Illustrator Honor recipient Evan Turk comes his debut work as author-illustrator: an original folktale that celebrates the power of stories and storytelling.
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