interview by Kevin Cordi, Ph.D.
I want to introduce you to my friend, author/professional storyteller Lindsay Bonilla. We share many common traits, we both love writing and performing stories. In fact, we were fortunate to take classes with Rives Collins, an amazing storyteller/professor who recently retired from the Theater Department at Northwestern University. We both delight in using process drama to engage kids in the work of fiction.
For these reasons and more, I want to share her work wtih you. She is a talented teller, captivating writer, and someone who knows the value of smiling.
She has written a children's book that features polar bears and penguins. This invited me to ask her:
Have you met a polar bear? Tell us the story.
I haven’t! But I have met lots of penguins -- most notably in Boulders Beach in Cape Town, South Africa where a penguin took me by surprise by swimming right between my legs!
How did you come up with Parker?
To this day, I don’t know why I chose a polar bear for this character – it was just the first image that popped into my mind! But the story came about after my husband, who is an immigrant from Columbia, had a difficult experience at work because of his accent.
She has also written a children's book on the imporance of loving more.
Why write a story about loving more?
The book I LOVE YOU WITH ALL OF MY HEARTS was inspired by my kids when they were very small. I wanted them to know just how loved and precious they were, and it took the form of a silly game that eventually turned into this book. I grew up with lots of unconditional love which gave me a positive sense of self. This is something I want for every child, and every reader of the book.
Imagine music notes that can talk. You don't have to imagine, she captures it in her next children's book.
Did you talk with musicians or draw on any musical background to compose “The Note who Faced the Music?”
Definitely! I don’t consider myself that musical, so I called upon my husband who plays the drums, as well as two friends, a violinist from the Akron Symphony Orchestra and an elementary music teacher, to read drafts and make sure that everything I said was accurate. Some people say, “Write what you know,” which is good advice, but I think you can write things you don’t know if you’re willing to do the work.
But the work that I am excited to share with you is from her recent book The Storyteller.
We invite you to her work at https://lindsaybonilla.com/
In our next post, she shares more about this work and how being a storyteller enables her to be an author. Join in the conversation.
**If you are an author who uses stories or a storyteller and you want me to feature your work, contact me. We are listening. I am sure you have a captivating story to share.