Helen Stringer Making Reading a Fearless Experience for Kids

Joining Bill today on KOKS Live is Helen Stringer to talk about: Fear, Fright and Fantasy - Making Reading a Fearless Experience for Kids!

Frightful entertainment is a longstanding tradition that goes back before stories were ever written.  Scary tales told by old uncle Harry, ghost stories around the campfire, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, monster movies, and murder mysteries and every horror and suspense tale on paper and film are all part of entertainment by fright. 

Unfortunately, younger kids who are unable to separate the tale from the truth are also exposed, and often truly frightened by media and second-hand tales from older kids.  How do we make fearless sense of the realistic non-reality of stories that are made to scare kids senseless?  Ask a storyteller!

A storyteller since her Liverpool, England childhood, Helen Stringer’s first job was researching the family history of the Earls of Sefton at their estate, Croxteth Hall. The vast, empty old mansion, opened to the public for tours, became a the buildings in her books.

In America, Helen attended film school, worked in the entertainment industry and then at an entertainment law firm. Like so many writers, her writing was done second shift. While working and learning how the industry works, Helen began working on SPELLBINDER, getting great advice from a partner in the firm.

Helen now lives in a barn at the back of her parents’ house with a bunch of cats and a ton of books.  Her books, Spellbinder and Belladonna are intended to stir the imagination of middle-schoolers on either side of the pond.

More info: HelenStringer.net