This Saturday, watch what happens when traditional fairytales come to life in unexpected ways with Messy Fairytales during the Creemore Arts Festival at the Creemore Branch of the Clearview Public Library.

Choose four random elements (character, location, problem and superpower) based on these familiar children’s stories and then act out what happens in our puppet theatre with your personalized paper doll creations. Or if you wish to choose another form of storytelling art, please feel free to draw a picture, write a poem or create a complete story book with your viewpoint on what happens next at our interactive craft tables. Consider this: Rapunzel is hiding in a cottage in the woods and has to confront the wicked witch to make things right by outwitting this obnoxious bully. Or Gretel is walking in the forest and meets up with her fairy godmother and then has to decide how to respond/not respond to her safety warning about multiple strange things in the woods. My own test run had the Ugly Duckling nesting uninvited in a cabin made of sweets and being challenged by The Beast who wants to be evil instead of kind until the Ugly Duckling influences him/her otherwise.

This form of playology is not only good fun but can create important teachable moments for the reader as these cause-and-effect storylines do highlight how the main characters who make good choices can safely explore universal themes of anger, fear, jealousy, loneness and sadness. Plot lines that involve out-of-the-box-thinking and creative problem- solving to navigate through dark and scary situations demonstrate the value of consequences - both good and bad - to find ways - safely or not so safely - to survive in this wild and wicked world.

The Creemore Branch is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this weekend and is located next to the Creemore Log Cabin who is hosting the Remnants installation of historical personal objects and the stories that they inspire. On our shared front lawn both Saturday and Sunday, we will be hosting Janice Lee as well as a pop-up book sale. Please join us for family playtime as we at Clearview Public Library celebrate the Art of Storytelling.

Michele McKenzie is deputy CEO of Clearview Public Library.