Storyteller Deborah Dunleavy shows her book The Jumbo Book of Music to an audience of children at the Wabush Public Library on Nov. 16 during her tour across Labrador as part of TD Canadian Children's Book Week.

Storyteller Deborah Dunleavy performed in J.R. Smallwood Middle School and Wabush Public Library on Nov. 16 as part of her tour across Labrador during TD Canadian Children's Book Week.

Launched in 1977, the festival is organized today by the Canadian Children's Book Centre in partnership with the Storytellers of Canada. It incorporates activities held in each province and territory across Canada in hundreds of schools, public libraries, bookstores, and community centres. This literary festival features many of Canada's prolific authors and aims to bring the magic of books and reading to children across the country.

Grade 4 students at J.R.S. were treated to stories by Dunleavy from all across the world about fool's wisdom. She believes that everyone can learn so much from stories about people that do foolish things, whether it be from a Persian story about a man who wanted to be a wizard or a lazy Jack story from Ireland.

She explains that the sense of humour at that age group is excellent and was glad to see her audience enjoy the quirky and funny stories she told. She describes her presentation as highly participatory, including a lot of echo and response.

Dunleavy's background is in music and education, so children's storytelling seemed to be the right fit. She has released four audio recordings including Strike Up the Band, which she had up for sale. She has also authored award-winning books including out of print The Jumbo Book of Drama and The Jumbo Book of Music which she was also offering for sale. She explains that her book expresses the knowledge that she has acquired over many years working with children and contains hands on activities that show children how to build a musical experience by themselves.

At her presentation in Wabush Public Library she told six stories including one about a woman from Les Isle de Madeleine, a tale about a flying canoe, a song about a good rafts man, a story about a king and a fool she found in a library, a tall tale about a bear, and a true story about her candy cane-making grandfather.

Her background in theatre was clearly shown as she used a lot of facial expressions and changes in voice, and she incorporated music into her performances from singing to playing spoons.

She explains that the way she prepares for a performance is to get down the bare bones of any story and then to visualize when you tell it. However, she admits the way she dresses up a story changes every time she tells it.

Her highest hope is for children to walk away from her performance and re-tell her stories in their own way.

Although most of the stories she told came from different sources, she hopes that they sparked a curiosity in children and a desire to get out and enjoy books that they might have lying around.

In the end, she would like her storytelling to bring back an old art form.

"It slows us down in a world that's very fast," says Dunleavy. "It helps us to spark our imagination in a world where so much is just presented to us, given to us. We are bombarded with a lot of information that is either in the media or on television and it's not interactive. Storytelling is more the interactive human connection."

She describes her storytelling as a symbiotic relationship with her audience because they are mastering their own visualization of the story and are always giving back.

She says that her first stop in Labrador has been a fantastic experience and that the people have been very helpful, friendly, and warm.

Dunleavy describes the tour as her fantastic experience of 2009, measuring up to a three-week study she had with storyteller David Campbell in Edinborough, Scotland a year ago in June.

She also has a lot to look forward to in the future including taking on the role of Storyteller in Residence for six months in a museum in Gananoque, Ontario which is near her hometown Brockville.

While in Labrador, she will be entertaining audiences in places including Churchill Falls, Goose Bay, Rigolet, and Hopedale.