How to Tell Stories to Children, and Some Stories to Tell

by Sara Cone Bryant

The wonder tales most familiar and accessible to the teacher are probably those included in the collections of Andersen and the Brothers Grimm. So constant is the demand for these that the following list may be found useful, as indicating which of the stories are more easily and effectively adapted for telling, and commonly most successful.

It must be remembered that many of these standard tales need such adapting as has been suggested, cutting them down, and ridding them of vulgar or sophisticated detail.

From the Brothers Grimm:

• The Star Dollars
• The Cat and the Mouse
• The Nail
• The Hare and the Hedgehog
• Snow-White and Rose-Red
• Mother Holle
• Thumbling
• Three Brothers
• The Little Porridge Pot
• Little Snow-White
• The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids
• The Sea Mouse

From Andersen:

• Little Tiny
• The Lark and the Daisy
• The Ugly Duckling
• The Seven Stories of the Snow Queen
• The Flax
• The Little Match Girl
• The Fir-Tree
• The Red Shoes
• Olé Luköié
• Monday
• Saturday
• Sunday
• The Elf of the Rose
• Five Peas in a Pod
• The Portuguese Duck
• The Little Mermaid (much shortened)
• The Nightingale (shortened)
• The Girl who trod on a Loaf
• The Emperor's New Clothes

Another familiar and easily attainable type of story is the classic myth, as retold in Kupfer's Legends of Greece and Rome.[1] Of these, again, certain tales are more successfully adapted to children than others. Among the best for telling are:

• Arachne
• Pandora
• Midas
• Apollo and Daphne
• Apollo and Hyacinthus
• Narcissus
• Latona and the Rustics
• Proserpine

[ [1] A well-nigh indispensable book for teachers is Guerber's Myths of Greece and Rome, which contains in brief form a complete collection of the classic myths.

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