The Storyteller's Start-Up Book: Finding, Learning, Performing and Using Folktales - Softcover

Margaret Read MacDonald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0874833051 ISBN 13: 9780874833058

Publisher: August House Publishers, 2006

Synopsis

Finding, learning, performing, and using folktales.

For those who want to begin storytelling but don't know where to start, The Storyteller's Start-Up Book offers everything one could ask for. Margaret Read MacDonald, an award-winning folklorist and children's librarian who is also a touring storyteller, offers basic start-up information on finding stories, looking at them critically, starting a "story bank," networking with other storytellers, and creating a storytelling event.

In chapters on learning and performing folktales, MacDonald offers the reader suggestions for finding his or her own performance style. Most importantly, MacDonald presents twelve fool-proof tales that will work for the first-time storyteller. Arranged in ethnopoetic style to relay a sense of rhythm, the stories encourage audience participation and feature enough repetition to make them easy to remember.

These multicultural tales selected from the folklore of Angola, Canada, Ghana, Nigeria, Siberia, Wales, and Zaire will delight any audience. Includes excellent bibliographies to help the new teller continue to explore the world of storytelling.

About this title

About the Author

Margaret Read MacDonald Bio:

Margaret Read MacDonald is a professional storyteller, award winning author and highly respected consultant who travels the world telling stories and conducting workshops for educators. Her most popular workshop “Playing with Stories” has been offered in over 70 countries. She has been invited to storytelling and literary festivals in Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand and Singapore. In addition, Dr. MacDonald teaches storytelling to classroom teachers for the Lesley University Creative Education through the Arts program. For years, she also taught storytelling as an Adjunct Professor with the University of Washington Information School. Dr. MacDonald is the author of over 60 books on folklore and storytelling topics, including many award winning folktale picture books. She has been telling stories since 1964 in her work as a children's librarian, and she holds a Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University along with an M.Ed.EC. (Educational Communications Masters) from the University of Hawaii and a Master's of Library Science (MLS) from the University of Washington. She is well known for her ability to create texts that delight the ear and are easy for teachers to share. Teaching with Story contains 20 of these useful stories that can be used by teachers with their students.

From Library Journal

Following her fine collection, Peace Tales (Shoe String, 1992), MacDonald here distills her extensive storytelling experience into 16 very brief, schematically organized chapters. Her advice covers the practical ground, from selection, learning (in one hour!), performance, and setting to classroom applications. Her philosophy of telling is simple: "Do it!" A confidence-building coach, MacDonald conveys the value of storytelling in an infectious manner. A dozen texts of proven success follow, with performance tips and source notes. Equally valuable are the selected and annotated bibliographies appended to every chapter. This straightforward volume would be a handy reference even for veterans. Few readers will be able to encounter MacDonald's encouraging advocacy without feeling an urge to find a story and audience of their own.
- Patricia Dooley, Univ. of Washington Lib. Sch., Seattle
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: August House Publishers
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0874833051
• ISBN 13: 9780874833058
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216