Storytelling

Have you ever wondered how to set up a storytelling program?  Which age groups would like tall tales, fables or foklore? How do you find, learn and perform a story to keep your audience’s attention, encourage participation and hold them in the palm of your hand?  HungarianLibrarian explores two books today that teach the foundations of this lost art very successfully: Storytelling: Art and Technique (3rd Edition) by Ellin Greene and The Storyteller’s Start-Up Book by Margaret Read MacDonald.  Both include performance instruction as well as a collection of effective told-aloud stories.  In addition, there are many bibliographic gems to mine in the pair.  Ferret out your own favorites to find stories that match your particular style. 

Storytelling bridges listeners to the cultures of other lands and times and connects them to traditional morals, values and beliefs.  Often a story will exist as a time-honored tale in a variety of countries; each twists and turns the story with the unique flavor of its tellers.  What a neat opportunity this creates for a cross-cultural comparison of a single folktale, a chance to see a story from perspectives  unlike our own.  With all of today’s modern conveniences–text messaging, email, pagers, Ipods, RSS feeds and PDA’s–touching the ancient humor of a Native American trickster tale or shivering with goosebumps over an African American ghost story satisfies on a primal level.  Tailypo scared the socks off of me and I certainly did not recall from childhood the truly horrific images Grimm tales can inspire!  Before Gaiman’s Wolves in the Walls there was Levine’s The Boy Who Drew Cats.  Teens will especially enjoy the Urban Legends of Jan Harold Brunvand and may find themselves running to Snopes to see how much truth they might actually contain!  As we sprint towards a technological future, remember to pause for the ancient voices of folklore and fable.

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