A Princess, A Storyteller And Fruit Smoothies

By Eliza Hallabeck

Fruit smoothies were served this past Monday to roughly 45 young adults half an hour before Connecticut’s nationally known storyteller Tom Lee shared a story about a princess with 12 windows.

The event was sponsored by the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library. The group is made up of a number of volunteers that help to raise money, categorize books, and sponsor adult and children’s programs.

The hallway near the children’s section in the library smelled sweet as members of the Young Adult Council made smoothies with a mixture of different fruit. The 45 young adults who signed up for the day had the choice of any flavor they wished to have.

“You have to keep reading,” said Margaret Brown, the young adult librarian at the C.H. Booth Library. “It is the best way to be an intelligent person.”

Ms Brown said this is the fourth year the summer reading program has started with a visiting storyteller.

“It’s been great,” she said. “Every year we get more people to come see and hear the storytellers.”

This year 45 young adults signed up for the program, according to Ms Brown. She said signing up for the day before it starts is necessary, because she needs to know how many ingredients to buy for the fruit smoothies. 

“If you love to write, you will love this program,” Ms Brown said before the presentation started.

She introduced Mr Lee, who has been telling stories professionally for around ten years, to the audience and reminded the assembled young adults that leaving during the presentation was not a possible.

“It is very important to give Tom your full attention,” said Ms Brown. “You are not going to want to miss this.”

Mr Lee told the audience that he tells traditional stories. Prior to the presentation he said this was his first smoothie event, and he asked the audience how many of them would have come to hear the story if smoothies were not given out. A good number of arms were raised in response.

“Once upon a time,” Mr Lee said to start this particular story. He then explained that he still did not know which story he would be telling, but by the time he finished the introduction, he said, he would know. He introduced the story with a long monologue that described how he knows the stories or story he was about to tell. After saying the introduction, he asked the young adults if they could repeat it back.

Bailey Smith, a student at the Reed Intermediate School, said she could. Her response was, “Once upon a time.”

Mr Lee asked her to come retell his introduction to storytelling, and she sat down in front of him as he again explained how he knows and tells stories. After helping Mr Lee, Bailey sat back down.

Then he started to tell the story call “Twelve Windows,” which, according to his website, is a folktale from Germany.

A princess, who would inherit the throne from her father, the king, lived in the tallest tower in the castle. Her chamber had 12 windows, and each window had the special ability to show her more of the world. Starting from the first window, she could look through all of them until she came to the last one. Though the 12th window she saw everything in the entire world.

Then one day her father told her she must marry, but she said she would not. The princess made a deal with her father. She would meet 100 men, and the men would be challenged to hide where she could not see them. If none of the men could find a place to hide from the view of her 12 windows, then she would not marry. The other part of the challenge required all the men who failed to hide to be banished from the kingdom and forbidden to marry.

The princess met with 97 men before she met three brothers. These brothers each had different ideas of where to hide, but the youngest, who was the last to try, had no idea where to begin to hide.

“So where do you think he hid?” Mr Lee asked.

The audience called out different responses. One boy said the second brother would hide in space.

The youngest brother talked the princess into giving him three chances, and on his last chance he succeeded in hiding somewhere she could never find him. In her own hair while transformed into a small bunny.

The princess married the youngest brother, and according to Mr Lee, they lived happily for at least a little while. He said he can not be sure, because he never heard the rest of the story, and he never shares stories that he does not know.

“In any case it is over and I think you should clap for me,” said Mr Lee to a responsive audience.