You don’t have to be a professional storyteller in order to tell stories, world-traveling mime and storyteller Antonio Rocha told a group of parents at the Farmington Public Library.

As part of a performance and informal talk Saturday, Rocha encouraged parents to have regular storytelling at home with their children.

Rocha was invited by the Western Maine Storytelling Guild to give two performances in Farmington. The Brazilian native, now of Gray, came to Maine 25 years ago to study miming under Tony Montanaro, who was considered a master of the art. He graduated from the University of Southern Maine and has since traveled the world performing.

At his first performance Saturday, Rocha told a mix of personal and folk tales to a group of kids, parents and guild members crowded into a second floor wing of the library.

The kids eagerly filled in Rocha’s sentences in his stories. In one tale a crocodile learns that he has more in common with a chicken than he previously thought. Before he eats the chicken, the crocodile is told that the chicken is his sister “in a very special way.” The crocodile learns that animals are connected not as blood siblings, but in the sense that all animals have connections to each other: Chickens and crocodiles both lay eggs.

“And crocodile realized,” said Rocha, “that no matter how different we look on the outside, deep in here, we’re all brothers and …”

“Sisters,” the kids chorused.

After the performance, Rocha said that there is much more than the moral of the story that children stand to gain from regular storytelling.

From reading books to sharing family stories, storytelling offers a host of benefits to children, said Rocha. When parents tell children stories about the family history and their personal history, they are passing on life lessons, letting kids know where they come from and helping build vocabulary.

For example, Rocha said his three-year-old daughter always seems to want to hear stories about ways he injured himself as a child. If children know stories about parents overcoming obstacles, he said those stories help give children hope when they face struggles.

“She lies her head on my shoulder when it’s nap time, and she goes, ‘Can you tell me a boo-boo story?'” he said. “It’s like, if my dad fell and scraped his face up, then I can survive a boo-boo too. If he got scared when he was five … and he’s telling me, then I can survive being scared too.”

Rocha said there’s a deeper parent-child bond being created when parents don’t exclusively tell stories from books.

“Don’t get me wrong, the book is very good. Reading is very good. But when you are telling something that happened to you, to your child, the benefits go up,” he said.

Stories are also ways for the kids to learn where their families came from and what obstacles their descendants overcame to get where they are. Rocha said that when he gives talks in schools, he frequently runs into children who don’t know much about their ethnicity or what their parents lives were like growing up.

He said that stories about parents’ personal struggles give kids hope that they too can overcome obstacles in their life.

“It gives a sense of belonging. Kids these days, they a lot of times don’t have any idea of where they come from,” he said.

Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252

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