The Second Generation from Bhutan

 The Bhutanese Nepali folktale produced by the New Hampshire Humanities Council, The Story of a Pumpkin, returned to Laconia, NH today where we first heard the story in the U.S.  What is wonderful is that the story, told by a  grandmother, Hari  Tiwari, is now with the children and grandchildren of Bhutanese refugees in the U.S. and all of us who live here.  Pictured here is storyteller Hari Tiwari's grandson and artist's Dal Rai's son, Anmol. After listening to Dal and Laconia children's librarian Gail Drucker tell the story, we had snacks.  The boys are eating a sweet Bhutanese pastry known as elephant ears since they sort of look like that. Below is Dal Rai and his newest son, Adrin, both wearing a garland.
The Story of a Pumpkin ends with the traditional words in a Nepali tale - "The teller of this tale receives a flower garland and the listener receives a garland of gold."
The Story of a Pumpkin is distributed by the    University Press of New England. 

Story of a Pumpkin Gets its Own Blog

Dal Rai, illustrator of The Story of a Pumpkin, sketches a scene of rural Bhutan.

The  NH Humanities Council's  Bhutanese Nepali-English folktale project began two years ago when folklorist and storyteller Jo Radner led folktale workshops in Laurie Lalish's ELL class in Laconia, NH. Now the selected folktale is about to be published.  And the book now has its own blog:  Story Of a Pumpkin.  Emily Kerr, a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire, is an intern with the NH Humanities Council and she has contributed the design and ongoing work on the blog. Emily even created a timeline following our steps.  Huge thanks to Emily Kerr who is also the author of a number of travel books.  So from now on, friends, if you're following the pumpkin on his journey to be published (not to mention his difficult journey in the tale as he attempts to marry the king's youngest daughter)  please follow us at storyofapumpkin.