Here's a riddle. There's a little green house, without a door and a star inside.

What is it?

"The little girl who lives behind us in Sudbury, if she's heard it once she's heard it a million times," said storyteller Dale Pepin, "and she never tells the secret."

Give up?

It's an apple.

Pepin pulls the green fruit from a sock and cuts it open to reveal the star-shaped seed cluster.

Dozens of wide-eyed kids at the London International Children's Festival have their attention focused on Pepin -- and aren't going anywhere until they get another story.

"I guess I'm an actor," said Pepin. "It's all a matter of voice, gestures, approaching them and receding from them."

His animated style of storytelling has been a big hit this week at the festival's Early Years Story Dragon.

But the creative tales don't come from books -- they're born from socks.

"I needed a gimmick," said Pepin, a professional storyteller.

During the show, he tells the kids, "When the monster in the washing machine eats one, I put a story in the other one."

And it's almost true.

They really are the leftover socks from his washer. And as for the monster -- well, who really knows where those socks go?

Pepin has a box full of them, each with a unique story inside. During the show, kids pick the socks and sit back to enjoy the corresponding tale.

Along with the apple, there's a star, a tiger and a string of pearls.

After spending 34 years as an elementary school teacher and librarian, Pepin turned to storytelling the day after his official retirement on Halloween "I'm still waiting for him to retire," said his wife, Jeannine, from across a picnic table in Victoria Park. She travels with him to all his shows.

This is Pepin's first visit to London, but he said he'd be thrilled to return if invited.

"We'd love to have him back next year," said Karen Killeen, executive director of the festival.

Even though he had a head full of stories when he retired, Pepin continues to pick them up everywhere he goes -- or doesn't go. The folk tales of faraway places are a plentiful source of ideas.

"At one time, the easiest way for me to get new stories was to download the list of UN countries from the Internet and just go in alphabetical order from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe," he said.

IF YOU GO

What: London International Children's Festival

Where: Victoria Park and indoor stages near the park

When: Today, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Tickets: All activities in Victoria Park and Michael Bradke's Mouthmusic are free; other indoor shows are $8 for those one and up; tickets are available at 645-6739 or during the festival at the bandshell box office.

Information: 645-6739 or www.londonchildfest.com

ON TODAY

Ticketed Shows

- Saigon Water Puppet Theatre, Mainstage Performance Tent, 11:30 a.m., 2 and 4 p.m.

- Comet in Moominland, 2 p.m., First-St. Andrew's United Church

Free Park Shows

- Mouthmusic, noon, 1:30 and 3 p.m., tent on Wellington Street side of Victoria Park

Free Bandshell Shows

- Dirty Dog Boogie, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

- Siculi Dancers, 1 p.m.

- Ciuri-Sicilian dancers, 4 p.m.

- Fuerza Latina, 5 p.m.

- Lancaster Irish Dancers, 5:30 p.m.