Ambika Sharma, a storyteller's daughter

 Ambika Sharma has joined our Nepali-English picture book project of the New Hampshire Humanities Council. Here she is interpreting
The Story of a Pumpkin, a tale told to us by
Hari Tiwari in Laconia.  We selected this story to develop into a bilingual picture book. Soon I will show you illustrations that Dal Rai is creating. Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord, a fine artist and bookmaker, has joined us as the designer of the book.  Folklorist Jo Rader, who presented workshops in ESOL classes in Laconia to generate the telling of traditional tales,  will write the preface to the book.  Ambika is the daughter of Bishnu who told a number of stories in Jo's workshops. But Ambika said he has never told those stories to her. We hope this process of listening to tales helps people to remember them. The second time Hari told The Story of a Pumpkin to us she told a lot more details and made the story funnier and funnier. We can't wait to get this all together to show you. Jo and I will soon create a handbook to offer teachers who'd like ideas for folklore projects.