Storytelling is one of our oldest activities, a way to convey values and keep cultures alive. Stories are also an important educational tool. By age six, children who have been read to or told stories have a vocabulary of 20,000 words compared to a vocabulary of 3,000 words for their less-lucky counterparts. Stories awake imagination, soothe the soul, and engender a life-long love of books and reading.
Thoroughly revised and updated, the fourth edition of the classic Storytelling: Art and Technique is an essential guide for beginning and experienced storytellers alike.
Ten years ago, Book Report called the third edition of Storytelling: Art and Technique, "invaluable ... a volume no librarian will want to be without." This fourth edition of the classic storytelling “how to” is even better—with 30 percent new material, additional chapters, new stories, and updated bibliographies.
This edition provides both a history of storytelling in libraries and accessible instruction for bringing storytelling to contemporary listeners. It details the selection, preparation, and presentation of stories, as well as planning and administration of a storytelling program. Full texts of 13 stories for various ages and occasions are included, as is an extensive list of resources. Bonus essays offer a fascinating international perspective through a survey of storytelling in Ireland and the British Isles and a look at storytelling in contemporary China. Complete with everything one needs to know to launch a successful storytelling program, this is the perfect book for librarians, teachers, parents—and professional storytellers, too.
Features
• Includes complete texts of 13 stories with source, culture, telling time, audience, and a comment for each
• Examples of a cue card, movement warm-ups for storytellers, a seating arrangement for a storytime, a storyboard, publicity posters, and more
• Offers resources for the storyteller, including professional books and articles, websites, storytelling books by genre, stories to tell to different age groups, read-alouds, and recordings
Highlights
• Presents an overview of storytelling in libraries in the United States from its beginnings in the late 19th century to the present day
• Details how to select and present stories and how to program and administrate a successful storytelling program
• Includes an international perspective, with essays about storytelling in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and in China
• Offers the full text of 13 stories, ranging from the well-loved nursery tale, “The Gingerbread Man,” to “Rubies,” a story of seduction, betrayal, ghosts, and vengeance for teenagers, to “The Legend of the Christmas Rose” for family sharing
Ellin Greene, EdD, is an internationally known storyteller, lecturer, workshop leader, and conference director. A former associate professor at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School and assistant coordinator of children's services/storytelling and group work specialist at the New York Public Library, Greene coauthored the first two editions of Storytelling: Art and Technique with her mentor Augusta Baker and was the sole author of the third edition. She has written 13 professional books and retold 11 folktales for children. In 2002, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Storytelling Network. Greene is a Distinguished Alumna of Douglass College, Rutgers, and is profiled in several Marquis Who's Who and The World Who's Who of Women, Cambridge, England.
Janice M. Del Negro, PhD, is assistant professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University, River Forest, IL. Her first picture book, Lucy Dove, won the Anne Izard Storytelling Award. Her second picture book, Willa and the Wind, was an ALA Notable Book. Del Negro’s latest book, Passion and Poison, is a collection of supernatural tales for young adults. Del Negro has been a featured storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival, the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, the Illinois Storytelling Festival, the Fox Valley Folk Festival, and many others. She has conducted workshops on various aspects of storytelling for librarians, teachers, parents, storytellers, and other educators in a variety of settings, including the National Storytelling Network Annual Conference, the Illinois School Library Media conference, the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of San Diego. She is currently working on her fourth recording, Fortune’s Daughters: Folktales and Ghost Tales, to be released in 2010.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
For Story’s Sake: Reading as Its Own Reward
PART I: HISTORY AND PRACTICE
Chapter 1: Storytelling: A Historical Perspective
Chapter 2: Storytelling to Children in Libraries
Chapter 3: Purpose and Values of Storytelling
Chapter 4: Selection
Chapter 5: Preparation
Chapter 6: Presentation
Chapter 7: Storytelling to Children with Special Needs; Storytelling in Special Settings
Chapter 8: Storytelling to Young Children
Chapter 9: Storytelling to Young Adults
Chapter 10: Children and Young Adults as Storytellers
Chapter 11: Program Planning
Chapter 12: Administration of the Storytelling Program and In-Service Education
PART II: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Storytelling in Libraries and Schools in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland
How Do You Say “Storytelling” in Chinese?
PART III: STORIES
The Gingerbread Man
Perez and Martina: A Puerto Rican Folktale
The Old Woman Who Lost Her Dumpling
The Dancing Granny
Ananse the Spider in Search of a Fool
Jack and the Two-Bullet Hunt
Willa and the Wind
More Than Salt
Ling-Li and the Phoenix Fairy: A Chinese Folktale
Rubies
The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy
The Vision in the Wood
The Legend of the Christmas Rose
PART IV: RESOURCES FOR THE STORYTELLER
Professional Reading
Bibliographies, Dictionaries, Encyclopedia, and Indexes
Books About Stories and Storytelling
Resources for Fingerplays, Action Rhymes, Flannel Board Storytelling, Storytelling Activities, Participation Tales, Reader’s Theatre and Story Theatre
Articles
Magazines About Folktales, Myths, and Storytelling
Web Sources
Folktales, Literary Tales, Poetry, and Song
Folktales: Collections
Folktales: Picture Books
Tall Tales
Fables
Heroes and Heroines, Myths and Legends
Literary Tales: Collections
Literary Tales: Picture Books
Poetry and Song
Stories of Special Appeal
Stories for Three- to Five-Year-Olds
Stories for Five- to Eight-Year-Olds
Stories for Eight- to Eleven-Year-Olds
Stories for Eleven- to Fifteen-Year-Olds
Stories for a Mixed-Age Group
Stories for the Family Evening Storytelling Program
Read-Alouds: 100 Personal Favorites
A Sampling of Storytelling Recordings
Sources
Glossary
Copyright Acknowledgments
Index
Reviews
"This title has been a standard professional reference work for nearly half a century, and with good reason. . . . Every public and school library will benefit from having this volume and consulting it should be often."—School Library Journal
"Ellin Greene once kept my library school storytelling class spellbound with her word-perfect, no-gestures telling of 'Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep' and heard Janice do the same, at a party a few years later, with Helen Eustis's 'Mr. Death and the Red-headed Woman.' So let's be glad that these two have joined forces for the fourth edition of Storytelling: Art and Technique . . . This much-enlarged edition covers the history of storytelling; techniques for finding, learning, adapting, and telling stories; considerations of special audiences; and, of course, lots and lots of recommendations for stories to tell."—The Horn Book Magazine
"Designed for beginner and experienced storytellers and public and school librarians, this volume will also be helpful to any adult working with children and teens. . . . Whether absorbing the information cover to cover or looking for specific storytelling topics and aids, the reader will find this title a useful one to own."—Booklist
"Storytelling: Art and Technique affirms the importance of an old tradition and provides librarians with the tools to help keep it alive."—American Libraries
"The fourth edition of this storytelling standby includes a wealth of updated and new materials, covering both the cultural history of storytelling and offering a comprehensive instructional guide for the creation and administration of storytelling programs that can remain relevant in a media-saturated society."—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
2011 Storytelling World Award Winner — Storytelling World
