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Title: Stories to Tell Children
Fifty-Four Stories With Some Suggestions For Telling
Author: Sara Cone Bryant
Release Date: September 14, 2005 [EBook #16693]
Language: English
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George Cruikshank STORIES TO TELL TO CHILDREN FIFTY-FOUR STORIES WITH SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR TELLING BY SARA CONE BRYANT AUTHOR OF "HOW TO TELL STORIES TO CHILDREN"
GEORGE G. HARRAP & CO. LTD.
2 & 3 PORTSMOUTH STREET KINGSWAY W.C.
1918
GREAT BRITAIN PREFACE
This little book came into being at the instance of my teaching friends. Their requests for more stories of the kind which were given in How to Tell Stories to Children, and especially their urging that the stories they liked, in my telling, should be set down in print, seemed to justify the hope that the collection would be genuinely useful to them. That it may be, is the earnest desire with which it is offered. I hope it will be found to contain some stories which are new to the teachers and friends of little children, and some which are familiar, but in an easier form for telling than is usual. And I shall indeed be content if its value to those who read it is proportionate to the pleasure and mental stimulus which has come to me in the work among pupils and teachers which accompanied its preparation.
Among the publishers and authors whose kindness enabled me to quote material are Mr John Murray and Miss Mary Frere, to whom I am indebted for the four stories of the Little Jackal; Messrs Little, Brown & Company and the Alcott heirs, who allowed me the use of Louisa Alcott's poem, My Kingdom; and Dr Douglas Hyde, whose letter of permission to use his Irish material was in itself a literary treasure. To the charming friend who gave me the outline of Epaminondas, as told her by her own "Mammy," I owe a deeper debt, for Epaminondas has carried joy since then into more schools and homes than I dare to enumerate.
And to all the others,—friends in whom the child-heart lingers,—my thanks for the laughs we have had, the discussions we have warmed to, the helps you have given. May you never lack the right story at the right time, or a child to love you for telling it!
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.
A few members of the class had prepared the story of The Fisherman and his Wife. The first girl called on was evidently inclined to feel that it was rather a foolish story. She tried to tell it well, but there were parts of it which produced in her the touch of shamefacedness to which I have referred.
When she came to the rhyme,—
she said it rather rapidly. At the first repetition she said it still more rapidly; the next time she came to the jingle she said it so fast and so low that it was unintelligible; and the next recurrence was too much for her. With a blush and a hesitating smile she said, "And he said that same thing, you know!" Of course everybody laughed, and of course the thread of interest and illusion was hopelessly broken for everybody.
Now, anyone who chanced to hear Miss Shedlock? tell that same story will remember that the absurd rhyme gave great opportunity for expression, in its very repetition; each time that the fisherman came to the water's edge his chagrin and unwillingness were greater, and his summons to the magic fish mirrored his feeling. The jingle is foolish; that is a part of the charm. But if the person who tells it feels foolish, there is no charm at all! It is the same principle which applies to any assemblage: if the speaker has the air of finding what he has to say absurd or unworthy of effort, the audience naturally tends to follow his lead, and find it not worth listening to.
Let me urge, then, take your story seriously.
Next, "take your time." This suggestion needs explaining, perhaps. It does not mean license to dawdle. Nothing is much more annoying in a speaker than too great deliberateness or than hesitation of speech. But it means a quiet realisation of the fact that the floor is yours, everybody wants to hear you, there is time enough for every point and shade of meaning, and no one will think the story too long. This mental attitude must underlie proper control of speed. Never hurry. A business-like leisure is the true attitude of the story-teller.
And the result is best attained by concentrating one's attention on the episodes of the story. Pass lightly, and comparatively swiftly, over the portions between actual episodes, but take all the time you need for the elaboration of those. And above all, do not feel hurried.
The next suggestion is eminently plain and practical, if not an all too obvious one. It is this: if all your preparation and confidence fails you at the crucial moment, and memory plays the part of traitor in some particular,—if, in short, you blunder on a detail of the story, never admit it. If it was an unimportant detail which you misstated, pass right on, accepting whatever you said, and continuing with it; if you have been so unfortunate as to omit a fact which was a necessary link in the chain, put it in, later, as skilfully as you can, and with as deceptive an appearance of its being in the intended order; but never take the children behind the scenes, and let them hear the creaking of your mental machinery. You must be infallible. You must be in the secret of the mystery, and admit your audience on somewhat unequal terms; they should have no creeping doubts as to your complete initiation into the secrets of the happenings you relate.
Plainly, there can be lapses of memory so complete, so all-embracing, that frank failure is the only outcome; but these are so few as not to need consideration, when dealing with so simple material as that of children's
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