HOW TO TELL STORIES

TO CHILDREN

AND SOME STORIES TO TELL

BY

SARA CONE BRYANT

LONDON

GEORGE G. HARRAP & CO. LTD.

2 & 3 PORTSMOUTH STREET KINGSWAY W.C.

1918

Books for Story-Tellers

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME

How to Tell Stories to Children
And Some Stories to Tell. By SARA CONE BRYANT. Tenth Impression.

Stories to Tell to Children
With Fifty-Three Stories to Tell. By SARA CONE BRYANT. Seventh Impression.

The Book of Stories for the Story-Teller
By FANNY COE. Fourth Impression.

Songs and Stories for the Little Ones
By E. GORDON BROWNE, M.A. With Melodies chosen and arranged by EVA BROWNE.
New and Enlarged Edition.

Character Training
A Graded Series of Lessons in Ethics, largely through Story-telling.
By E.L. CABOT and E. EYLES. Third Impression. 384 pages.

Stories for the Story Hour
From January to December. By ADA M. MARZIALS. Second Impression.

Stories for the History Hour
From Augustus to Rolf. By NANNIE NIEMEYER. Second Impression.

Stories for the Bible Hour
By R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON, B.A.

Nature Stories to Tell to Children
By H. WADDINGHAM SEERS.

MISS MAUD LINDSAY'S POPULAR BOOKS

Mother Stories
With 16 Line Illustrations.

More Mother Stories
With 20 Line Illustrations.

THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH
GREAT BRITAIN

To My Mother

THE FIRST, BEST STORY-TELLER
THIS LITTLE BOOK IS
DEDICATED

PREFACE

The stories which are given in the following pages are for the most part those which I have found to be best liked by the children to whom I have told these and others. I have tried to reproduce the form in which I actually tell them,—although that inevitably varies with every repetition,—feeling that it would be of greater value to another story-teller than a more closely literary form.

For the same reason, I have confined my statements of theory as to method, to those which reflect my own experience; my "rules" were drawn from introspection and retrospection, at the urging of others, long after the instinctive method they exemplify had become habitual.

These facts are the basis of my hope that the book may be of use to those who have much to do with children.

It would be impossible, in the space of any pardonable preface, to name the teachers, mothers, and librarians who have given me hints and helps during the past few years of story-telling. But I cannot let these pages go to press without recording my especial indebtedness to the few persons without whose interested aid the little book would scarcely have come to be. They are: Mrs Elizabeth Young Rutan, at whose generous instance I first enlarged my own field of entertaining story-telling to include hers, of educational narrative, and from whom I had many valuable suggestions at that time; Miss Ella L. Sweeney, assistant superintendent of schools, Providence, R.I., to whom I owe exceptional opportunities for investigation and experiment; Mrs Root, children's librarian of Providence Public Library, and Miss Alice M. Jordan, Boston Public Library, children's room, to whom I am indebted for much gracious and efficient aid.

My thanks are due also to Mr David Nutt for permission to make use of three stories from English Fairy Tales, by Mr Joseph Jacobs, and Raggylug, from Wild Animals I have Known, by Mr Ernest Thompson Seton; to Messrs Frederick A. Stokes Company for Five Little White Heads, by Walter Learned, and for Bird Thoughts; to Messrs Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd. for The Burning of the Ricefields, from Gleanings in Buddha-Fields, by Mr Lafcadio Hearn; to Messrs H.R. Allenson Ltd. for three stories from The Golden Windows, by Miss Laura E. Richards; and to Mr Seumas McManus for Billy Beg and his Bull, from In Chimney Corners.

S.C.B.

HIAWATHA PICTURES.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

• The Story-teller's Art
• Recent Revival
• The Difference between telling a Story and reading it aloud
• Some Reasons why the Former is more effective

CHAPTER I

THE PURPOSE OF STORY-TELLING IN SCHOOL

• Its immediate Advantages to the Teacher
• Its ultimate Gifts to the Child

CHAPTER II

SELECTION OF STORIES TO TELL

• The Qualities Children like, and why
• Qualities necessary for Oral Delivery
• Examples: The Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, The Old Woman and her Pig
• Suggestions as to the Type of Story especially useful in the several primary Grades
• Selected List of familiar Fairy Tales

CHAPTER III

ADAPTATION OF STORIES FOR TELLING

• How to make a long Story short
• How to fill out a short Story
• General Changes commonly desirable
• Examples: