Check out these free virtual family programs from Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss from Beauty and the Beast Storytelling. They are also authors of the Noodleheads series with Tedd Arnold. Martha and Mitch have given public librarians permission to share these virtual program links for patrons to enjoy from home. Feel free to use them and enjoy!
Story Gifts: Free Virtual PerformancesHaving spent the past forty years as visiting storytellers/authors, we feel immense gratitude to everyone who welcomed us into their schools and libraries. We’d like to offer “story gifts” as a way of saying thanks and bringing some cheer during these challenging times. Teachers and parents, we applaud your herculean efforts, and hope these stories will help, even in a small way, to get your children—and you--to the other side of this universal nightmare. We have created two free virtual performances, one for kindergarten--second graders, and one for third--fifth graders. These are also perfect for families enjoying together at home. Here are the links:
Feel free to share with other teachers, parents, or anyone who loves stories.
Free Ready to Go Author Visits:
More storytelling gifts for the classroom—or living room
We are also the authors of more than twenty-five books and are not retiring from writing. Our Noodleheads series with Tedd Arnold, creator of the Fly Guy series, won a Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) Honor Award and a Notable Book of the Year Award from the American Library Association. It also won the Aesop Prize from the American Folklore Society, which predicted that this series of early-reader graphic novels for ages 5-9 is "going to be a hit!” The fifth book, Noodleheads Lucky Day, was just released.
Each book in the Noodleheads series was inspired by several world folktales about fools. We are creating videos for each book in which we tell the old folktales, read part of the book, explain some of the idioms that the characters, Mac and Mac, take literally, and encourage children to create their own stories. These videos are free, virtual Ready to Go Author Visits. They help children understand that world folktales transcend barriers of time, country, and cultures. As long as people have been around they’ve done foolish things—and made up stories to laugh at their own foolishness. The books delight children with wordplay, jokes, and slapstick humor, while at the same time encouraging critical thinking and inviting kids to use their noodles--spotting the holes in Mac and Mac's grand plans, and anticipating how things will go awry.
Links for the Author Visits we’ve done so far:
Noodlehead Nightmares Author Visit
Noodleheads Lucky Day Author Visit
NoodleheadsBooks.com includes these videos, teacher guides, an event kit, games, writing prompts, and lots of fun information on all things Noodlehead.
It’s official! We’re retiring from school visits after forty years of telling stories together.
January 1, 2021 marks the fortieth anniversary of our meeting at a New Year’s Day brunch. We told our first story together less than three weeks later. We had planned to make the 2020/2021 school year our last but the pandemic came along and changed everything. It seems unlikely that schools will be having live performances/workshops during this school year, so we have decided to retire from school visits. We are sad not to be able to say goodbye at several schools where we have worked for many years but are pleased that we had the time to create these videos.
We’d love to hear from you!
Our retirement is bittersweet. What a fun job we had--looking out at a sea of uplifted faces with slack-jawed looks of wonder never got old. Other aspects of our job did—such as driving on icy roads, packing and unpacking, setting an alarm for the wee hours, etc. If we performed or did residencies at your school or library, or you've used our books, we'd love to hear from you.
You can find us on the Web at: Beauty & the Beast Storytellers
On Facebook at: MitchWeissMarthaHamilton
On Instagram at: Two Noodleheads
We are developing a mailing list and plan to send out an infrequent newsletter such as this when we create new videos or publish new books. If you do not wish to receive these emails, just reply with "Unsubscribe” as your subject heading.
With gratitude,
Mitch and Martha
