The storytelling handbook Book

Pgs 1 - 40: Very enjoyable so far. This book is geared for children who want to be a story teller so the author starts by giving them ideas for places they can do story telling (festivals, while babysitting, school programs, competitions, etc.) and mentions real kids she's met/mentored that have been story tellers. She goes on to give tips for memorizing and performing stories.

I liked an idea she mentioned on pg. 6 in which someone would tell a story to young children, have them draw the main ideas/plot points in a "pocket book," take it home and retell the story, using their images as prompts, and then come back to school to tell everyone how it went.

41 - 80: This section had to do w/ actual stories that people can tell w/ tips for telling them. I've realized that I really hate cumulative/formula/neverending/repetitious stories. They bore me to tears. But I really liked the Japanese "Glutton" story incorporating numbers on pg. 60 and "The Fisherman's Surprise" involving the folding of a dollar bill on pg. 61. And the others involving discussion like "The Orphan Boy," "Bar of Gold," and the point of view story w/ the spider and millipede.

81 - 112: I didn't like the examples of holiday stories in this section. The stories in the "Stories to Memorize" section were interesting and I would consider telling those. The ones written by children were cute. One thing I noticed about this book that I didn't like is that I don't think the author gives proper credit to where all the stories came from. There is a section in the back that explains the sources of the stories but I feel that that's easy to skip over and that sources of stories should be listed along with the stories, especially since this is a book for kids who want to tell stories. It should be made very clear to them that they need to cite and give credit for the stories they're telling. Another thing that was a little odd and just showed the age of the book was that several times the author mentioned writing to her or storytelling associations and gave physical addresses, no websites or email addresses. It doesn't really affect any of the info in the book but it just noticeably dates the book, which was published in 1995.