No Ordinary Story Time

Scott Urquhart, otherwise known as Scott the Storyteller, knows how to keep kids riveted.

Carrying a guitar in one hand and a suitcase full of hand puppets in the other, the Marin County resident has been delighting young audiences with his original songs and stories for over a decade.

And since October, Urquhart has been entertaining an expanding local crowd at A Likely Story, a Petaluma bookstore which hosts his storytime each Sunday at noon.

Watch a video of Urquhart with his puppets by clicking the image

What began with only a few people quickly grew to a large following, according to owner Karin Haley, who opened the store in the Theater District last August. 

Since most of Urquhart's stories aren’t written down, he never repeats an identical one. He caters each storytime to whatever he thinks the children will respond to—whether humorous, serious, or even a bit scary.

“If they’re really distracted I’ll frighten them into paying attention,” he jokes.

Actually, Urquhart is personable and approachable, quite capable of making a room erupt with laughter. Sitting on the floor, he uses facial expressions and fun sound effects to tell his tales. Afterwards, he welcomes kids to come up and try on the characters, which include a leprechaun, a wizard, an orangutan and nearly fifty others.

Urquhart, 49, first started making up stories to tell his own children and their preschool peers, using puppets to bring his characters to life. Soon it was the puppets themselves that inspired most of his stories.

“I’d put one on and think, this one’s got a story. Instantly I hear their voices and I see their personalities,” says Urquhart. “They might be lofty and wise, or dopey and silly.”

Parents say their kids really look forward to the story telling circle, complete with cookies and juice boxes.

“They love the puppets and their voices, and they get to know the stories,” says Cara Miles, a Cotati mom who has made the outing a weekly tradition with daughters Catherine, 2 and Jacquelyn, 4.

“It’s just something different, kind of old fashioned” Miles says, as if seemingly amazed by the fact that her kids will sit and listen without a video screen. “It’s something you don’t see everywhere.”

In addition to hiring Urquhart, the store's calendar of events includes a storybook reader, author and illustrator visits, and reading clubs for teens or mother-daughter groups.

Haley, who ran a successful bookstore in Los Angeles for fifteen years, says the store fills an important niche by specializing in children’s and young adult literature, as well as parenting books. She handpicks all of her non-commercial titles and hires knowledgeable staff that can order any book—even those out of print.

“If a child comes back and tells me, ‘I love the book you recommended. Do you have anything else?’ it makes my day,” she says. “That’s why I’m here.”

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