The Great Big Summer Story Adventure!
Let’s Venture Into Story!
The Great Big Summer Story Adventure is a high-energy, “imaginations on” summer storytelling experience that goes beyond story listening. It turns young audiences into active participants in the stories they love.
Led by master storyteller Rachael Harrington, children and families don’t just listen to folktales; they step inside them. Through call-and-response, movement, music, and shadow puppetry, participants jump up and get down, helping bring each story to life by becoming performers and storytellers themselves.
This joyful program is intentionally designed to:
Spark excitement for summer reading
Encourage engaged literacy through storytelling and interactive performance
Inspire family reading time and meaningful connection at home
Motivate children and caregivers to return to the library throughout the summer
The Great Big Summer Story Adventure helps libraries position reading as playful, participatory, and powerful and will help build confident readers, enthusiastic storytellers, and families who see the library as a hub for imagination, creativity, and connection.
Summer Stories Bonuses!
After the interactive performance, families are invited to extend the magic through a hands-on summer stories art activity, using visual storytelling to reimagine and retell the tales in their own creative way. Each participant also receives a Summer Stories Activity Book to take home, designed to keep the stories going through reading, drawing, and storytelling all summer long.
Meet Rachael
Rachael Harrington is an internationally recognized storyteller who performs traditional and personal stories in arts venues, schools, festivals, museums, as a guest lecturer at Rutgers University, and in collaboration with companies such as Salesforce.
Presenter: The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, The New York Public Library, The American Library Association, National Storytelling Network Summit, NJ Association of School Libraries, NJ Education Association.
Publications: Storytelling Magazine, School Library Connection, Voices: Journal of NJ TESOL.
Performance Highlights: The Story Center at The Mid-Continent Public Library, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, Dream On Productions Bogotá Colombia, Summer On The Hudson Festival, Festival of Water on Governor's Island NYC.
