Storytelling: Art and Technique » (4th Edition)

Thoroughly revised and updated, the fourth edition of the classic Storytelling: Art and Technique is an essential guide for beginning and experienced storytellers alike.

School Library Journal

This title has been a standard professional reference work for nearly half a century, and with good reason. Covering a panoply of subjects of interest to would-be storytellers, and especially pertinent for children's librarians, it's been the go-to volume for good advice on planning and presenting successful programs. That said, it needed a serious update, and this fourth edition is a worthy successor to the previous three. As in the past, the history of the oral tradition, the value of the art, selection of stories, techniques for learning and telling, audience preparation, telling to children with special needs, teaching children and young adults to tell stories, and a vastly expanded and revised list of resources for storytellers are included. One of the major differences between this edition and its 1996 incarnation is the acknowledgment that some audiences we'd been accustomed to thinking of as insupportably challenging benefit greatly from hearing stories, rhymes, and songs and from having books read to them and, so, are worthy of our best efforts to reach them. These include infants, toddlers, and special-needs children. Greene and Del Negro devote many pages to explaining the benefits of storytelling to these populations, incorporating scientific and anecdotal evidence in their practical discussion of programming for them. Essays about storytelling in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and China are an interesting addition. Every public and school library will benefit from having this volume and consulting it should be often.—Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY

Foreword vii

Preface xi

For Story's Sake: Reading as its Own Reward xix

Part I History and Practice

1 Storytelling: A Historical Perspective 3

2 Storytelling to Children in Libraries 12

3 Purpose and Values of Storytelling 42

4 Selection 59

5 Preparation 75

6 Presentation 95

7 Storytelling to Children with Special Needs; Storytelling in Special Settings 110

8 Storytelling to Young Children 129

9 Storytelling to Young Adults 175

10 Children and Young Adults as Storytellers 193

11 Program Planning 213

12 Administration of the Storytelling Program and in-Service Education 231

Part II An International Perspective

Storytelling in Libraries and Schools in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland 249

How Do You Say "Storytelling" in Chinese? 270

Part III Stories

The Gingerbread Man 279

Perez and Martina: A Puerto Rican Folktale 283

The Old Woman Who Lost Her Dumpling 288

The Dancing Granny 292

Ananse the Spider in Search of a Fool 299

Jack and the Two-Bullet Hunt 303

Willa and the Wind 305

More Than Salt 310

Ling-Li and the Phoenix Fairy: A Chinese Folktale 314

Rubies 318

The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy 322

The Vision in the Wood 325

The Legend of the Christmas Rose 329

Part IV Resources for the Storyteller

Professional Reading 339

Bibliographies, Dictionaries, Encyclopedia, and Indexes 339

Books About Stories and Storytelling 340

Resources for Fingerplays, Action Rhymes, Flannel Board Storytelling, Storytelling Activities, Participation Tales, Reader's Theatre and Story Theatre 345

Articles 346

Magazines About Folktales, Myths, and Storytelling 349

Web Sources 349

Folktales,Literary Tales, Poetry, and Song 352

Folktales: Collections 352

Folktales: Picture Books 367

Tall Tales 382

Fables 385

Heroes and Heroines, Myths and Legends 386

Literary Tales: Collections 390

Literary Tales: Picture Books 393

Poetry and Song 397

Stories of Special Appeal 408

Stories for Three- to Five-Year-Olds 408

Stories for Five- to Eight-Year-Olds 410

Stories for Eight- to Eleven-Year-Olds 413

Stories for Eleven- to Fifteen-Year-Olds 416

Stories for a Mixed-Age Group 419

Stones for the Family Evening Storytelling Program 422

Read-Alouds: 100 Personal Favorites 425

A Sampling of Storytelling Recordings 430

Sources 439

Glossary 441

Copyright Acknowledgments 444

Index 445