​Teachers and librarians, feel free to share the tales and rhymes from these books in performances on Zoom, on YouTube, or wherever kids need stories. Please remember to give me credit (and share my address—judysierra.net). Also, don't charge money without written permission.

Flannel board storytelling at home—no, you don't need a flannel board

I wrote The Flannel Board Storytelling Book for librarians and teachers, assuming they would be using the stories with groups of children at a storytime or in a story circle. They can easily be made and used at home, too.

At home, kids and their grown-ups can make their own flannel board figures. Use my patterns, or create your own using my drawings as a guide to relative sizes.

Making flannel board figures is a bit like making paper dolls, but instead of paper, use Pellon brand heavyweight, sew-in interfacing. There are dozens of varieties of Pellon. You want the kind that is not iron-on, is made of pressed fibers, and has approximately the feel of copier paper. Pellon is available at virtually all fabric and quilting stores. Figures made from this interfacing will cling to a fuzzy fabric surface that is almost vertical, leaning back slightly at the top (about 20-30 degrees).

Pellon is white and slightly transparent, like tracing paper, so you can easily trace the patterns onto it. It can also be cut into 8-1/2 by 11 inch sheets and fed into an ink jet printer in order print patterns directly from the pdf files.

For coloring the Pellon, I like Caran d'Ache Neocolor I or Neocolor II crayons, which apply smoothly and have intense pigments. They are available in boxed sets or individually at dickblick.com.

If you're very crafty and want to make fabric collage characters, use Pellon or a piece of felt as a base. 

The back of a chair or sofa can be your theater. If it's not fuzzy enough, drape a towel or blanket over it. Big pillows and cushions also work. Give your story space extra flair by stretching a colorful scarf across the top, letting it fall down the sides of your play area, like a theater curtain.