At one table directly outside the Elkin library sat Cole Walker and Jennifer Martin. Alongside stood Luke Hudson. Not several feet away at another table were situated Maggie Cole and Carrie Guyer. All were there to register children for the summer reading program, "Be Creative @ your library."

In its second week, Martin said 163 children had so far enrolled. A number of them had signed up that day. Through it all, library staff member Wendy Giudici was thrilled over the positive response.

"Attendance has tripled over the past five years," Giudici said.

The summer reading program is of long duration. Although she was not positive, Giudici believed the program has been in place at least as long as the current Elkin library has been open.

"There are parents who bring their children in who attended the program when they, themselves, were children," she said.

The program is a yearly one, but limited to taking place locally.

"This is a national program and all the libraries in North Carolina are part of this program," she said.

According to Giudici, there is an ever-changing number of performers come to the library each week. One purpose is to get children away from watching so much television. Another is to introduce them to various aspects of the fine and performing arts. More important is getting the children actually involved.

"This week we have Brack Llewellyn, a storyteller from Mount Airy," she said. "Earlier, he told a tale of a haunted house and two of the older children 'became the house.'"

Llewellyn said he has been doing storytelling for the summer reading program for 19 years. He said his repertoire was about 100 stories, and he recites them almost entirely from memory.

It has never grown stale for him, he said. One reason is the audience is always different, which allows him to — as he put it — "tailor his tales." That also allows variation.

"One of the beauties of storytelling is, it's never told the same way twice," he said.

In addition to bringing the art of oral storytelling to children, Llewellyn said there is another purpose.

"I do like my stories to teach," he said.

While she awaited the doors to open to the room adjacent to the actual library, where the Llewellyn would hold forth, children pored over books and games in the library itself. A number of them were accompanied by parents, grandparents, other siblings and even babysitters.

While her younger brother, Mason, 6, was busy with some toys, Megan Brown sat at a table with her grandmother, Juanita Johnson. Last week, the first week of the program, the Brown children were entertained by Captain Jim, the Pirate.

"I liked the magic tricks," she said.

As soon as the doors to the storytelling room opened, she and her brother were gone in a flash, along with a number of other children. They immediately found places to sit on the carpeted floor and cheered when Giudici introduced Llewellyn. After he introduced himself, he told the children to listen and pay attention because he would be "throwing words at them."

With widened eyes, expressive face and arms in motion, he began his tale.

The children sat, rapt with attention, drinking in what he had to say.