For the Story Teller: Story Telling and Stories to Tell

by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

[PREFACE]

The new-old art of story telling is being rediscovered. We are finding that the children’s daily story hour in school, in the neighborhood house, and at home is a real force for mental and moral good in their lives. We are learning that it is possible to educate children by means of stories.

Story telling to be a developing factor in a child’s life must be studied by the story teller. There are good stories and there are poor stories for children. The story that fits a child’s needs to-day may not prove a wise choice for him to-morrow. Some stories teach, some stories only give joy, some stories inspire, some stories just make a child laugh. Each of these story phases is important. To discover these special types of stories, to fit stories to the individual child or child group, and to make over stories for perfect telling has been my aim in writing this book.

Through telling stories to many thousands of children and lecturing to students I have found that story telling is a matter of psychology. The pages that follow give my new theory of story telling to the teacher or parent.

Carolyn Sherwin Bailey.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	The Apperceptive Basis of Story Telling	[ 1]
II.	The Story with a Sense Appeal	[ 23]
III.	When the Curtain Rises	[ 41]
IV.	Using Suspense to Develop Concentration	[ 57]
V.	Story Climax	[ 83]
VI.	Training a Child’s Memory by Means of a Story	[ 105]
VII.	The Instinct Story	[ 122]
VIII.	The Dramatic Story	[ 142]
IX.	Story Telling an Aid to Verbal Expression	[ 171]
X.	Stimulating the Emotions by Means of a Story	[ 191]
XI.	Imagination and the Fairy Story	[ 212]
XII.	Making Over Stories	[ 231]
XIII.	Planning Story Groups	[ 245]
	STORIES FOR TELLING
The Cap that Mother Made, adapted from Swedish Fairy Tales		[ 8]
Goody Two Shoes		[ 16]
The Three Cakes, from Monsieur Berquin’s L’Ami des Enfants		[ 35]
The Prince’s Visit, Horace E. Scudder		[ 52]
The Travels of a Fox, Clifton Johnson		[ 60]
Little Lorna Doone, adapted from Richard Blackmore		[ 68]
Little In-a-Minute		[ 76]
Old Man Rabbit’s Thanksgiving Dinner		[ 92]
The Great Stone Face, adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne		[ 98]
Little Tuk, Hans Christian Andersen		[ 115]
The Selfish Giant, Oscar Wilde		[ 133]
The Gingerbread Boy (dramatized), Carolyn Sherwin Bailey		[ 153]
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse (dramatized), Carolyn Sherwin Bailey		[ 163]
The Woodpecker Who Was Selfish, adapted from an Indian Folk Tale		[ 181]
The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings, adapted from a Southern Folk Tale		[ 185]
The Little Lame Prince, adapted from Miss Mulock		[ 201]
The Blue Robin, Mary Wilkins Freeman		[ 219]
The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf, Hans Christian Andersen		[ 238]