Lines to Nurture Minds : Deedra Bebout, who creates scripts that help youngsters learn to read, says stories shouldn’t seem like lessons.

“To nurture the minds and souls of kids without their even noticing.”

That maxim, created by Deedra Bebout for her business, Children’s Story Scripts, “sums up the very meaning of learning--having an adventure without having to trudge through rote drills,” said Bebout, who markets reader theater-style scripts for children from her Burbank home office.

Designed for children ages 5 through 13, the scripts blend narration with dialogue and are paired with such support material as vocabulary lists, seating diagrams, a leader’s script, story background and suggested discussion points.

The 33 stories, written by Bebout and others, range from the classics to those that promote dental hygiene. In “Dave’s Unhappy Teeth,” for example, children play the roles of a boy’s teeth, recounting the trials they suffer because of neglect.

Other stories are high in concept, but are tailored to young readers. “The Story of Io” relays a Greek myth, illustrating the havoc that jealousy can cause. And the opera “La Boheme” is re-created in a 21-page script for nine readers who are encouraged to make up their own tunes for the tragic love story.

“I created the series expressly to encourage a love of reading,” said Bebout, a former sound-effects technician who began her business two years ago. She has since sold about 1,500 scripts to school districts, libraries, churches and camp and scouting programs across the United States and Canada. The stories cost from $20 to $35, including duplication rights within a given group or school.

“The scripts develop self-esteem through self-expression, group participation and problem solving,” Bebout said. “At the same time, children have fun. I never want the stories to feel like a lesson.”

Amy James, who teaches second grade at Stonehurst Avenue School in Sun Valley, said the scripts match schools’ emphasis on an interdisciplinary approach to learning.

“Any tool we can find that combines skills--like reading and performing, for example--is really useful,” James said. “The stories also give me a chance to put weaker readers together with stronger ones, so they can help each other.”

James and Bebout said one of the most popular scripts in the series deals with Rosa Parks’ 1955 civil rights battle in which the tired seamstress refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus. In “I Won’t Stand for It!” children take the parts of the bus driver, passengers, Parks and a narrator, reciting actual dialogue from the incident.

An excerpt:

Narrator: The law said that if one white person needed a seat, all the black people in the whole row had to move. So the bus driver ordered Rosa Parks and the three other black people sitting in her row to get up and go stand in the back.

Bus driver: “I need those seats for this man.”

Narrator: None of the black people moved.

Passenger 7: “We were tired.”

Bus driver: “You all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats.”

Narrator: The man sitting next to Rosa Parks got up and moved to the back of the bus. So did the two ladies across the aisle. But Rosa Parks did not get up.

Rosa Parks: “I was tired.”

Narrator: She just slid over to the seat next to the window, leaving the seat on the aisle open. Now there were three vacant seats in that row--not good enough, according to the law.

Bus driver: “Are you going to stand up?”

Rosa Parks: “No, I am not.”

Bus driver: “If you don’t stand up, I’m going to have you arrested.”

Rosa Parks: “Go ahead.”

“Even if kids read events like that in a textbook, they soon forget the material,” said Bebout, who started her business after writing a children’s script for a friend.

“Acting it out makes the learning come alive.”

Teacher Ann Gediman uses the scripts in her fifth-grade English as a second language class at Lockhurst Drive School in Woodland Hills.

“Nine languages are spoken in my class and we have to meet on a common ground, which is English,” said Gediman, who has used six of Bebout’s scripts.

“The scripts are something everyone can participate in, and they’re designed so that no one goes without a line for very long.

“Students ask to perform the stories over and over again, sometimes wanting to change roles.

“The format helps to develop public-speaking skills, too, and I can choose stories that highlight different cultures in my class.”

Gediman has used the story “Hanako’s Bowl,” an adaptation of a Japanese folk tale, as well as a mystery story that she said helped her students develop the ability to think logically.

Bebout, who has professionally packaged her scripts and support material with art and graphics, also offers five volumes of language art scripts called “Acting Up in Language Arts.”

“See Scarlett swoon for Vigorous Verb,” reads the promotional material. “Watch the doctor operate on a bloated paragraph.” The stories, which can be acted out in short skits, were created for children 9 and older.

Where to Go

What: Children’s Story Scripts, 2219 W. Olive Ave., Suite 130, Burbank 91506.

Call: (818) 563-6105.