Confetti Park Children's Workshop

Tag: magic

  • Storytime: Juju the Good Voodoo by Michelle Hirstius

    Storytime: Juju the Good Voodoo by Michelle Hirstius

    A book cover for JuJu the Bood Voodoo Doll

    Are you ready for the creation story of Juju the Good Voodoo Doll?

    In a cabin in a bayou one foggy night
    Marie the VooDoo Queen was casting spells
    on dolls that were good,
    and some that were a fright.

    One little doll she saw at a glance—
    purple hair, big black eyes
    and a gold dress.
    could this be the very one, by chance?

    “You are special…. you are the one!” and so Marie mixed the spell of good deeds for this doll.

    This is how the story of Juju the Good Voodoo doll begins her role casting spells of good deeds on others who need help. This is the very first in the adorable series by Michelle Hirstius.

    “Voodoo, Hoo Doo, You do! Juju knows voodoo, and I’ll put a good spell on you.” From here, you can follow her adventures in books both written and illustrated by the very talented and creative Michelle Hirstius, who lives in New Orleans.

    Confetti Park is so delighted to share some of Juju’s other adventures in our Storytime feature too! Listen along as Juju saves Christmas in da Bayou (and meets Cajun St. Nick) and as Juju Meets the Rougaroo—it’s a perfectly hair-raising tale spooky tale featuring the Louisiana swamp monster. All these books are ideal for young readers and impart lessons about being nice and doing good.

    From the author’s website: “Juju is adorable and will enter your hearts as she comes off the pages of this delightful tale. Children and adults will fall in love and enjoy reading the origin of where Juju came from and what she is set out to see and what “good deeds” are to come.  This book lets children learn something known a negative can be positive. Juju is also different and unique and that’s OK. You can be YOU!”

    Check out all the adventures of Juju at http://www.michellehirstius.com/

  • Storytime: The Fairy Fox of Bossier by Iran Martin

    Storytime: The Fairy Fox of Bossier by Iran Martin

    Grand's Fairy Tales by Iran and Henryell Martin
    Grand’s Fairy Tales by Iran and Henryell Martin

    In this episode of Confetti Park Storytime, we hear “The Fairy Fox of Bossier” by Iran Martin, from his book Grand’s Fairy Tales.

    Father and son are on a walk through the forests of Bossier to gather wood. They leave mother home cooking their supper, and she warns them not to be late.

    “I remember mother standing over her cooking pot, as was her custom, spicing a little of this, and a little of that,” recalls the son.

    While the men are walking, pushing their rickety cart, the father talks of a place where the limbs drop from trees, making for easy gathering. They continue searching for this place, and keep walking farther and farther, always thinking it is just a little bit ahead.

    “Soon we were overcome by weariness, and sat down to rest,” says the son. “The sun was fast sinking behind silvery shreds of dark shadows. And not any wood had been found.”

    “Then, unexpected music swelled our senses with harps, flues, fiddles and the like….Suddenly, a wide berth of emerald colored glass appeared…from an open door within a giant majestic tree. We spring from the ground upward, pushing our cart aside, and took thoughtlessly through its opening.”

    So begins an adventure of dancing with elves, sprites, gnomes and other magical woodland creatures, all watched over by the Fairy Fox of Bossier.

    The men, who are enchanted by the music, pass a thrilling time dancing. But they do not realize that in this magical place, time has no meaning. They do not realize that ten years of mortal life have passed by! Only by petitioning the all-knowing and all-powerful Fairy Fox of Bossier will the men be able to return to the wife and mother, who was last seen cooking their supper by the wood fire.

    Their eyes are opened by their adventure to the meaningfulness of family, domesticity, and creature comforts. Also revealed: the precious gift and strange nature of time.

    Iran and Henryell live in Bossier City, in north Louisiana. They are native New Orleanians who moved to north Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. “The Fairy Fox of Bossier” and all of the tales and fables in Grand’s Fairy Tales are steeped in Louisiana folklore and imagery of the forests, bayous and other water ways of our beautiful state. And many of them offer a moral for the reader to take away.

    Also: Listen to Iran Martin read “The Beaver’s Tale of Greed.”

    Buy Grand’s Fairy Tales on Amazon.

    Iran & Henryell Martin
    Iran & Henryell Martin
  • Storytime: To Dream of Dancing: Desdemona’s Dreams by Z.W. Mohr

    Storytime: To Dream of Dancing: Desdemona’s Dreams by Z.W. Mohr

    Desdemona's Dreams In this episode of Confetti Park, we hear an excerpt from the enchanting fairy tale To Dream of Dancing: Desdemona’s Dreams, Volume 1. Z.W. Mohr, the author, narrates for us a dream poem and an introduction to Desdemona. This is an excerpt from the first book in his original series co-created with illustrator Aaron Damon Porter.

    Desdemona is an 11 year old girl who is being raised by her two mysterious aunts and guardian teddy bear. When we first meet Desdemona, she is battling a mad maestro who wants to steal away her dream of dancing. When she awakes, her adventures continue…..

    From this introduction, we, along with Desdemona, will discover she can bring her dreams into the waking world at a time when everyone else is forgetting how to dream.

    Many more chapters of Desdemona’s Dreams are to come from New Orleans-based co-creators Mohr and Porter. Currently, there is To Dream of Dancing: Desdemona’s Dreams, Volume 1 and The Land of Mar: Desdemona’s Dreams, Volume 2. The second book features pirates!!!

    The Desdemona’s Dreams series offers a whirlwind of adventures in magical places, with inspiring and strong female characters. It also shows us the beauty of a child’s imagination, and how dreams shape the very world around us.

    Stay tuned for an interview with Z.W. Mohr and Aaron Damon Porter on Confetti Park.

  • Bruce Sunpie Barnes: The magic of my father’s music

    Bruce Sunpie Barnes: The magic of my father’s music

    Sunpie Barnes CD coverIn this episode of Confetti Park, we hear a childhood music memory from Bruce Sunpie Barnes, the talented and multifaceted blues harmonica player and zydeco accordionist from Louisiana.

    In addition to leading the zydeco band the Louisiana Sunspots, Bruce has had a long career as a ranger and naturalist at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Louisiana. (He also had a career in the world of NFL football, playing with the Kansas City Chiefs!) And he’s the photographer and author of Talk That Music Talk. Read more about his biography at All Music.

    Bruce’s music has always been a part of his life, and even as a naturalist, he found music an effective way to communicate about the culture and importance of the Louisiana environment. Bruce was one of the key producers on two-album compilation, the National Park Service: Songs of the Lower Mississippi Delta.

    Here Bruce shares a special memory of his father, who was one of his most important influences.

    “My earliest memory of anything to do with music was sitting on my father’s knee and listening to him play harmonica. He would work all day, and when he’d come home in the evening, I always wanted to hear him play his harmonica. And he’d play a song called “Coon ‘n the Hound” and make these barks like a dog…. and I was completely fascinated by it.

    I would sit on his knee and he would play for all my brothers and sisters (a lot of them), but I would just sit and I would try to figure out where all that sound was coming from.

    It was like magic. It was the first thing I ever associated with being magic.

    I would always think about that when I would go to bed, ‘I can’t wait till I get old enough so I can make some magic.‘”

  • Storytime: Little Laveau, a magical bedtime story by Erin Rovin

    Storytime: Little Laveau, a magical bedtime story by Erin Rovin

    Little Laveau by Erin Rovin
    Little Laveau by Erin Rovin

    It’s storytime from Confetti Park!

    In this episode, we hear the sweet and clever tale of Little Laveau, narrated by the author, Erin Rovin.

    Little Laveau is an enchanting little bedtime story set in the Louisiana bayou. Laveau is a lovable character who draws on her deep family roots and the magical environment for inspiration as she helps friends and animals.

    In this adventure, Little Laveau’s friend Thomas is having bad dreams, and he doesn’t know what to do. Luckily, Little Laveau has just the cure!

    “When you have a bad dream gather up all those bad thoughts and put them in a jar. Take that jar and sprinkle those dreams right down the drain. They flow through the rivers and out into the sea, the salt water washes them clean and takes out all the scary! Then they get swept up onto the beach as grains of sand where the sun warms the bad right out of them all day long. That’s what the beautiful beach is made of, bad dreams turned good and beautiful by the ocean and the sun.”

    The book, available for sale online at the Book Patch, features enchanting and atmospheric watercolors by Katie Campbell.

    Little Laveau is such a great character, and the idea for how she shares family recipes with her friends and readers is adorable.  We cannot wait to see what new adventures are in store for Little Laveau!

    Thank you so much Erin for sharing your story on Confetti Park.