Dear Storytellers,

Recently, we’ve been reading Tall Tales–John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, and Paul Bunyan. We know that these stories may have originally been about real people, but, over time, other real people did what real people tend to do: stretched the truth.

This week we’ll explore other ways that humans take facts and twist them into fantastical stories. When humans first started digging fossils, what creatures did they imagine? When humans felt like they didn’t have control over their lives, what stories tales did they weave to make sense of their world?

As readers, writers, and thinkers, we have to always be on the lookout for the difference between truth and fiction. Sometimes, that’s much more difficult than it seems.

Sincerely,

Mr. H