Stories Come to Life

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker.  One thing I enjoy about Understood Betsy is how the author makes comments to us as Betsy’s story unfolds. For example, in today’s episode, Betsy is so confused about which grade she is supposed to be in in school. She is a wonderful reader, but not so good at arithmetic. She has had a long practice of guessing...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. What a strange new life it is for young Elizabeth Ann when she wakes up in the first morning of her time in Vermont. She does so many things for the very first time today: she gets herself up and dressed, fixes her own hair, and even learns how butter is made. But how can the Putney people expect her to go to sc...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. One of the reasons I love creating this podcast is that I can revisit some of the books I have loved all my life. Understood Betsy is one of these. Written in 1917 by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, this book is now in the public domain, which means it can stay available on this podcast forever!  Here we meet little El...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. All summer long the four children have been living at the edge of the woods in their boxcar. Everything is going well. They have plenty to eat, Henry works hard every day for the kind doctor, and Benny is even learning a bit of math. But then Violet becomes gravely ill and they need to turn to others for help. T...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Picking fruit in the orchard, eating cherry slump and roasted potatoes, running a big race, and not only teaching Benny to read but making him a new stuffed bear: these are just a few of the memorable and charming events in today’s installment of The Boxcar Children . Living in a freight car at the edge of the w...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Henry, Jess, Violet, and Benny are now living in the cozy boxcar they found in the woods. Henry has good luck when he goes into town to see if he can find some work. Young Doctor McAllister is impressed with the way Henry works, and invites him to come back every day to do odd jobs around the place. Maybe Jess,...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Back in 1924, Gertrude Chandler Warner’s book The Boxcar Children was published. Eighteen years later, in 1942, the book was condensed and revised to make it simpler for young readers. But I find the original version to have a lot more detail and charm. So, this is the version I’ll be recording. Plus, because th...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Today’s story is one of my childhood favorites, The Light Princess , written by George MacDonald and published in 1864.  Everyone knows that sometimes a wicked witch may come uninvited to a royal christening, and the results can be quite frightening. A princess may sleep for a hundred years, or might turn into a...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Today we will listen to “The Ransom of Red Chief,” a short story written by William Sydney Porter, who used the pseudonym O. Henry. Even though this story was published more than 100 years ago (in 1910), mischievous and imaginative children are still the same! Sam and Bill think they have figured out the perfect...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Today we will hear the exciting last four chapters of Treasure Island. After Jim gives his word to Long John Silver that he won’t run away and go back to the doctor, the squire, and the captain, he and the mutineers set off to find the treasure, as indicated on the chart that Jim first acquired from the old sea...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here are chapters 28, 29, and 30 of Treasure Island. Poor Jim Hawkins climbed over the stockade only to find himself in the middle of the pirates’ den! The pirates weren’t very happy to see Jim, and what with one thing and another, most of the men were ready to do away with him. But Long John Silver came to the...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Chapters 25, 26, and 27 of Treasure Island are some of the most exciting of the adventure! Jim Hawkins clambers aboard the Hispaniola and finds her empty---except for the dead body of the seaman O’Brien and the living but wounded coxswain, Israel Hands. Jim and Israel Hands reach an uneasy truce as they work tog...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here are chapters 22, 23, and 24 of Treasure Island. After the doctor patches up the injured captain, and does what he can for the other wounded men, he leaves the stockade to go and meet with Ben Gunn. Jim, left behind in the sweltering heat, decides to leave the safety of the stockade also and search for Ben G...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Jim is back to narrating the exciting events unfolding on Treasure Island. In chapters 19, 20, and 21, we find Jim, the doctor, the squire, Captain Smollett, and several other good men defending the log-house and stockade against the mutineers. Long John Silver, who has proclaimed himself captain of the pirates,...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Today’s chapters, 16, 17, and 18, of Treasure Island are narrated by Doctor Livsey because Jim Hawkins, our hero, is having his own adventures on the island. The doctor, the captain, the squire, and the other faithful crew members decide to leave the Hispaniola and find the stockade and log house on Treasure Isl...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here are chapters 13, 14, and 15 of Treasure Island. The Hispaniola has finally reached Treasure Island, and the crew members are so anxious to go find the gold that they are belligerent and refuse to do anything they are ordered. Long John Silver leads a shore party with the intent to convince the men to be pat...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Now we have chapters 10, 11 and 12 of Treasure Island. What an exciting thing it is for Jim to be on board the Hispaniola , immersed in the life of the sea! He watches the men march around the capstan bars, hears the boatswain pipe the hands on board, and enjoys the new experiences. Then one day as he has clambe...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here are chapters 7, 8, and 9 of Treasure Island. The squire, Mr. Trelawney, has purchased a lovely schooner, the Hispaniola , to take Jim and Dr. Livesey to the island on the treasure map. He’s also hired a captain, a cook, and enough men to crew the ship. Jim is so excited to go to sea that he can hardly think...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Here are chapters 4, 5, and 6 of Treasure Island. The old sea dog, Billy Bones, died of shock, surprise, and an excess of rum in the Admiral Benbow Inn. He left a debt behind that Jim Hawkins and his mother could certainly use. He also left behind a lot of enemies. When no one will help protect Jim and his mothe...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. When I was young, I played the game of Authors for hours on end. At some point I formed the goal of reading all the books represented in that old card game. Treasure Island was one of the books highlighted by Robert Louis Stevenson. Here is the first installment of that book, the three chapters that introduce ou...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Kindness and beauty are both wonderful qualities to be blessed with. But where beauty is often out of our control, kindness is something people can develop and add to their characters, no matter what their outward appearance may be like. Today’s stories are two traditional African folktales, Mufaro’s Beautiful D...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Today’s stories are two African folk tales retold by Baba Wague Diakite that represent some of the principles celebrated during the holiday of Kwanzaa. In both The Magic Gourd and The Hunterman and the Crocodile, Baba Wague shares the principles of Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Faith...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Miss Minchin is surprised to hear that Sara has crept over to the Indian Gentleman’s house with something wrapped up in her coat. That will never do! She storms over to confront Sara and demand that she return to the school at once! Sara, however, is now under the protection of the Indian Gentleman, who has been...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. The Magic has actually come to Sara’s cold little attic room. She and Becky have never been so well fed, so warm in their cold garret, or so happily calm in the face of Miss Minchin’s scoldings. Miss Minchin doesn’t know what to think. It’s almost as if Sara is a little princess after all!  One night the little...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. At the end of a very cold, very hungry day, Sara returns to her room to find sweet Ermengarde waiting for her. After the girls hear Miss Minchin scolding poor, hungry Becky for something Becky had not done, Ermengarde remembers she has a hamper full of tasty things to eat in her room, and she creeps down to fetc...