What were the first stories? What were they about and why did people tell them. Some of our oldest stories are creation tales. They try to answer basic questions about how we came to be on this earth, how we should live, and what is important and meaningful in the world. What stories do you remember from your childhood? Perhaps there were family stories, or someone read or told stories to you, or you saw stories on tv. When we get older we might become aware of different genres of stories but the basic compelling form of stories remains: there is a setting ( a time and place where the story occurs), characters that remind us of ourselves or other people, a plot ( things happen: there are conflicts, quandaries, dilemmas, quests, events, causes, effects, resolutions, endings, beginnings, middles, climaxes and aporias), and a subtext wherein the teller of the tale and the reader or listener make meaning out of the setting, the characters and the plot. Stories are so powerful because they draw the listener in. The listener becomes attached (or antagonistic) to the characters, involved in the plot and engaged with the setting. Storytellers provide a basic context to the arc of our lives as individuals and collectivities.
As teachers and parents we use stories to entertain children, to wake them up and put them to bed. We use stories to teach children values, about what is important and what isn’t. Stories help children learn about human emotions, psychology and behavior, and they help them form identities and a sense of their place in the world. Stories cultivate the imagination, help us explore what’s real and what’s fiction, investigate the map of the possible and the possible, and limn the topographical and cultural landscapes of desire, curiosity and care. They entertain, delight, and excite, educate, edify, and terrify, persuade and move us in mysterious ways. They unsettle and problematize our understanding of who we are and open up new possibilities in relationship to ourselves, others and the world. But what stories do children listen to? What stories capture their imagination and end up shaping their heart and minds?
Storytellers, or griots, are traditionally the wise men and women of a particular society, that use their power in ethical ways to shape people’s understanding of the world. But of course there is always more than one storyteller and who is telling the truth? Think of the snake in the garden of Eden. And there are always different takes on the “same” story ( Marlowe’s Faust is condemned to Hell, whereas Goethe’s goes to Heaven!). And we are all concerned with how different stories and storylines affect our children. Peggy Orenstein declares “Cinderella Ate My Daughter,” while Maria Tatar praises traditional fairytales for valuing “bold, clever children.” So in this modern world we worry and ponder about what stories should we tell our children, and how these stories can compete against the dream factories of Hollywood, the advertising industry of corporate America, the bigotry, misogyny, and the earth hating and fearing threads of many of our dominant cultural traditions.
Storytelling is one of the basic ways that young children begin to make sense of the world through language. As children get older basic, unconscious “storylines” shape each child’s sense of him or herself, their relationships with others and their place in the world. Stories can draw children into a deep engagement with characters, situations, experiences, values and perspectives on the world. Children can learn how to “trade places” with people who are different from them. They can imaginatively encounter situations and wonder about how they would act and think about what it would be like to have that experience. They can explore different value systems, perspectives and attitudes about the world. Perhaps most importantly they can begin to make connections between the storyteller, story and audience, and slowly shift from being a passive, captive audience, to active subjects who can tell old stories in new ways and new stories about old problems.
The Pied Piper made an agreement with the elders of the town of Hamelin to get rid of their rat problem for a mutually acceptable fee. When they reneged on their end of the bargain and refused to pay the piper, he turned his flute on the children of Hamelin and they followed him out of the town, over a river, up a mountain, and into a land that we never get to see. Ultimately those children must grow up and decide what tune they want to follow, what story they want to tell, what way they want to live.
By Michael Morpurgo
Illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark
Below I have included some resources to help you explore the incredible storytelling riches we have available to us. Add your own and share.
Hans Christian Anderson
Time Magazine’s list of the 100 best chider’s books of all time
http://time.com/100-best-childrens-books/
Cool website that compiled a list of the 50 greatest children’s books of the last 10 years
https://www.fatherly.com/play/50-greatest-childrens-books-last-10-years/
Brainpickings.org is an amazing website that regularly reviews outstanding new children’s books and traditional children’s book authors and has a best of children’s books every year
https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/12/17/best-childrens-books-2017/
This is the American Library Association website for notable books in children’s literature
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/notalists
This is the American Library Association website for notable books in children’s literature for 2017 http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/notalists/ncb
This is a great website for teachers that gathers together all the major award winning books and addresses different issues in learning to read
http://www.readingrockets.org/books/awardwinners
Great website in honor of Ezra Jack Keats that recognizes excellence in multicultural education
http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/ejk-book-award/
28 picture books about the African American experience that are not about “buses, boycotts or basketball.” It is often necessary to dig deeper to find books that tap into the full expanse of human experience!
This is the best academic website for children’s literature. It has all the award books, discussion threads on different pertinent issues, and endless book lists. Just fantastic!
https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/default.asp
Fantastic website put together by teachers of lists of all sorts books by theme!
https://www.the-best-childrens-books.org/
Great set of lists of books around all sorts of relevant themes
https://childhood101.com/category/play-and-learn/literacy-play-and-learn/books/
Amazing website of children’s literature authors and illustrators
http://www.fcbg.org.uk/childrens-authors-and-illustrators/
Look for the websites of your favorite illustrators and authors. Jerry Pinkney is a favorite of mine!
http://www.jerrypinkneystudio.com/
Shameless plug for my website childhood-culture-learning.org. I read a book every week, reference many children’s books in different sections of the website, and am just starting a resources section for each months material that will have lots of book lists.