Showing results by author "Crystal Carroll" in All Categories

Five years before, Aeschylus dragged his battered body home after a lifetime of service in Aegina's navy. He'd hoped for a place to curl up and forget. Instead, he'd found himself the city guard's captain and in the middle of a political firefight with Aegina's rival and nearest neighbor, Athens. No one with any sense would join the guard. Young hoplites itching for glory and gold joined the marines or were hired as mercenaries. There was always a war somewhere. Aeschylus needed a decent guardsman. Someone who understood that everyone deserved the same level of protection.

A child has their story ticket, ready to turn it in. “Crystal, can you tell me a story?” Soon, all the children are turning in their tickets. The storyteller and the children move a bit away from the parents, who are chatting by the campfire. Each child gets to decide who is in their story (queens, builders, princesses, themselves, guardian angels, and so on) and decide where their story takes place. This book has been carefully packed with some of those stories.

There once were 12 princesses, who so frightened their father by wearing out the soles of their slippers each night in their locked room that he offered princes a kingdom for the secret and death for any prince, who failed to learn the truth. Quite simply, they danced every night with magic princes in a magic palace by a magic lake in a magic forest that they reached by a fairly normal staircase under a trapdoor in their room. Where the trapdoor or the forest or the lake or the palace came from wasn't a question the king bothered to ask.

In a family restaurant, friends gather. A woman walks in the door and a child runs up, "Crystal, tell me a story". She responds, "After dinner, I'll see if I have story tickets". If she does (and the timing works), each child gets a ticket. Each child gets to decide who is in their story (princess, unicorn, dragon, robot, and so on) and what those characters are named. Dinner is over. Listen to some stories.

In the woods, a group of friends gathers beneath the tall redwoods. There's a fire going against the chill. A child runs up to ask for a story with a story ticket in hand. Soon, all the children are turning in their tickets. Each child gets to decide who is in their story (princess, unicorn, dragon, robot, and so on) and what those characters are named. This book has been carefully packed with some of those stories.