Monday, March 28, 2016

3/28/2016: Storytime Pup - How it all started (Part II). Youtube, the Land of Opportunity?

While I was pondering a way to promote children's books to the masses, I was also exploring Youtube.  Being that we are living in the video age, and with Youtube growing at an exponential rate, I thought I might want to explore doing something on Youtube. I had started a video blog a couple of years ago, but really didn't have much direction for it and it fizzled away.  But, the desire to do something in that arena was still there.  My wife and I are both looking for something we could do as we near retirement and we thought a Youtube Channel could be fun
    My wife Diane, was the one who really sparked the idea for Storytime Pup.  One night she said, "you like to act, Maybe you could read kids books on Youtube".  I did a lot of acting in college and recently started again at a local community theatre.  I pictured myself sitting in front of a camera reading books.  Sounded kind of boring to me and I didn't think the kids would embrace it.  I told her I wasn't too sure about that, but I would think about it more.  .
     I put the idea in the back of my mind, and occasionally I would ponder on it.  The concept of reading books to children was great.  I was pretty active in my kid's school when they were growing up.  I used to help with all the parties and many times I read to their classes.  I really enjoyed it.  So, I loved the idea, but I wasn't thrilled with the delivery method.  First I thought maybe I could dress up like an old man and be "Grampa Bill the Storyteller".  But that still didn't seem right.  Then I thought that maybe I could use a ventriloquist dummy or puppets to read the stories.  Nope, not yet.  But, I was on the right track.  Then I began to think back as to what my kids liked when they were little.  Immediately I thought of Barney the dinosaur.  My son Ryan just loved Barney when he was little.  He would have watched him all day if I let him.  Hmm I thought.  What if we had a character like Barney who read books to children?  BINGO, that's it!  Kid's love books and characters.  I knew we had the recipe for something good.  It was January 18th, the beginning of what I hoped to be an interesting and fun project.

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(Next - Part III - Finding A Puppy)



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