Peace and Quiet-- A Felt Board Story

Why has it taken me so long to acquire a copy of Judy Sierra's The Flannel Board Storytelling Book? Her stories are easy to tell and the felt-board pattern pieces are distinct. After borrowing the library's copy, I ordered a used copy for my own collection.

I recently used patterns for a Eastern European Yiddish folktale called "Peace and Quiet," which follows the same plot-line as Margot Zecmach's It Could Always Be Worse. In "Peace and Quiet," the rabbi's role is played by a wise woman, and the harried protagonist is a farmer who lives alone but cannot get any sleep due to the creakiness of his house. I simplified the pattern pieces, used thread instead of glue, and opted for imagination instead of cutting out a felt house. I acknowlege that goats generally are not green and cows are not pink.

Here's what I came up with:


The farmer consults the wise woman


The harried farmer tries to get some sleep

I try to use craft felt as much as possible because pure wool felt is expensive and I need to save it for my dolls. Craft felt can be found at many hobby stores as well as textile shops.

Nocturnal animals all about...

I made some felt-board animals to use with Nancy Stewart's song Nocturnal Animals:

On a moonlit night when the stars come out
There are nocturnal animals all about
Whoo, whoo, what do I see
A wise old owl looking at me.

Despite its legginess, I added a cricket, but left out other nocturnal animals like cuttlefish, tasmanian devils, tarantualas, skunks and vinegarroons. Did you know that crickets are nocturnal (active during the night) while grasshoppers are diurnal (active during the day)? I didn't. Also, there are animals that are neither strictly nocturnal nor diurnal, but crepuscular, i.e. primarily active during twilight. Platypus (or platypuses), coyotes, foxes and a lot of songbirds are crepuscular, though they're often called nocturnal in casual conversation. You do have casual conversations about such matters, right? If you're a Nerdfighter, you might.