CONTENTS
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| Some Suggestions for the Story-teller Additional Suggestions for Method —Two Valuable Types of Story —A Graded List of Stories to dramatise and retell | [11] |
| Story-telling in teaching English Importance of Oral Methods —Opportunity of the Primary Grades —Points to be observed in dramatising and retelling, in connection with English | [27] |
STORIES TO TELL TO CHILDREN | |
| Two Little Riddles in Rhyme | [43] |
| The Little Yellow Tulip | [43] |
| The Cock-a-doo-dle-doo | [45] |
| The Cloud | [46] |
| The Little Red Hen | [48] |
| The Gingerbread Man | [49] |
| The Little Jackals and the Lion | [55] |
| The Country Mouse and the City Mouse | [58] |
| Little Jack Rollaround | [62] |
| How Brother Rabbit fooled the Whale and the Elephant | [66] |
| The Little Half-Chick | [70] |
| The Blackberry-bush | [74] |
| The Fairies | [78] |
| The Adventures of the Little Field Mouse | [80] |
| Another Little Red Hen | [83] |
| The Story of the Little Rid Hin | [87] |
| The Story of Epaminondas and his Auntie | [92] |
| The Boy who cried "Wolf!" | [96] |
| The Frog King | [97] |
| The Sun and the Wind | [99] |
| The Little Jackal and the Alligator | [100] |
| The Larks in the Cornfield | [106] |
| A True Story about a Girl(Louisa Alcott) | [108] |
| My Kingdom | [113] |
| Piccola | [115] |
| The Little Fir Tree | [116] |
| How Moses was Saved | [122] |
| The Ten Fairies | [126] |
| The Elves and the Shoemaker | [130] |
| Who Killed the Otter's Babies? | [133] |
| Early | [136] |
| The Brahmin, the Tiger, and the Jackal | [137] |
| The Little Jackal and the Camel | [144] |
| The Gulls of Salt Lake | [147] |
| The Nightingale | [150] |
| Margery's Garden | [159] |
| The Little Cotyledons | [171] |
| The Talkative Tortoise | [176] |
| Robert of Sicily | [178] |
| The Jealous Courtiers | [185] |
| Prince Cherry | [189] |
| The Gold in the Orchard | [199] |
| Margaret of New Orleans | [200] |
| The Dagda's Harp | [204] |
| The Tailor and the Three Beasts | [208] |
| How the Sea became Salt | [215] |
| The Castle of Fortune | [220] |
| David and Goliath | [227] |
| The Shepherd's Song | [233] |
| The Hidden Servants | [236] |
| Little Gottlieb | [243] |
| How the Fir Tree became the Christmas Tree | [246] |
| The Diamond and the Dewdrop | [248] |
SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR THE STORY-TELLER
Concerning the fundamental points of method in telling a story, I have little to add to the principles which I have already stated[1] as necessary, in my opinion, in the book of which this is, in a way, the continuation. But in the two years which have passed since that book was written, I have had the happiness of working on stories and the telling of them, among teachers and students in many parts, and in that experience certain secondary points of method have come to seem more important, or at least more in need of emphasis, than they did before. As so often happens, I had assumed that "those things are taken for granted"; whereas, to the beginner or the teacher not naturally a story-teller, the secondary or implied technique is often of greater difficulty than the mastery of underlying principles. The few suggestions which follow are of this practical, obvious kind.
Take your story seriously. No matter how riotously absurd it is, or how full of inane repetition, remember, if it is good enough to tell, it is a real story, and must be treated with respect. If you cannot feel so toward it, do not tell it. Have faith in the story, and in the attitude of the children toward it and you. If you fail in this, the immediate result will be a touch of shamefacedness, affecting your manner unfavourably, and, probably, influencing your accuracy and imaginative vividness.
Perhaps I can make the point clearer by telling you about one of the girls in a class which was studying stories last winter; I feel sure if she or any of her fellow-students recognises the incident, she will not resent being made to serve the good cause, even in the unattractive guise of a warning example.