Bibliography for Storytellers:

Compiled by Dianne Hackworth

SKILL AND METHODS | STORYTELLING AND EDUCATION
COLLECTIONS OF STORIES FOR TELLING | MULTICULTURAL COLLECTIONS | TELLING PERSONAL AND FAMILY STORIES
ABOUT STORYTELLING | STORIES ABOUT STORIES OR STORYTELLING | SCARY STORY COLLECTIONS

Today there are more books on the subject of storytelling than most of us have time to read and study. However, it is always good to have a list of the best of these books handy just in case we do have a spare moment and don't want to loose time looking up the books we should read to fill our particular need.

Many of us are beginners and may not have a clue where to start. Some of us have been telling for years, but haven't taken the time to study the field of storytelling as we should. This list I have compiled really only scratches the surface. (It doesn't even touch on resources available by internet) I'm sure to have left out what someone considers the authoritative book on the subject and of course, there are new books being published every day, but I hope this will give you something to start with.

Now, for those who really don't have time to read all these fabulous books, let me tell you, in a synopsis, what they say. If you are going to tell personal or family stories, make them interesting. If you want to teach something, it is best learned through story. Look for stories that can be incorporated in history, science, and even math! When researching for a folk or fairy tale to tell, look for as many sources as you can find. Go to the older published works (this also helps you avoid that copyright issue!) and read, read, read.

Oh! Doing all that requires you to read, read, read! Ahhhh! The life of a storyteller!
Happy Reading! (And Telling!!!)

STORYTELLING SKILL AND METHODS top

The Art of the Story-Teller - Marie L. Shedlock
NY: Dover Publications, 1951

The Art of Storytelling: Creative Ideas for Preparation and Performance - Marsh Cassady
Colorado Springs, CO: Meriwether, 1994

Caroline Feller Bauer's New Handbook for Storytellers - Caroline Feller Bauer
Chicago: American Library Association, 1993

Children Tell Stories: A Teaching Guide - Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss
Katonah, NY: Richard Owen, 1990

Creative Storytelling: Building Community, Changing Lives - Jack Zipes
New York: Routledge, 1995

Creative Storytelling: Choosing, Inventing, and Sharing Tales for Children - Jack Maguire. Cambridge, MA: Yellow Moon Press, 1985

Improving Your Storytelling - Doug Lipman
Little Rock, AR: August House 1999

Just Enough to Make a Story: a Sourcebook for Storytelling - Nancy Schimmel
Berkeley, CA: Sister's Choice Press, 1982, 1989

Make Money Performing In Schools: The Definitve Guide To Developing, Marketing, & Presenting School Assembly Programs- David Heflick
Orient, WA: Silcox Productions, 1996

Once Upon A Time: A Storytelling Handbook - Lucille N. Breneman and Bren Breneman
Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1983

The Parent's Guide to Storytelling - Margaret Read MacDonald
NY: HarperCollins, 1995

Story$Sells - Elizabeth Gibson
1999 ISBN: 0965111652

Storyteller - Ramon Royal Ross
Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill, 1980. 3rd edition

The Storytelling Coach: How to Listen, Praise, and Bring Out People's Best - Doug Lipman
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1995

The Storytelling Handbook: A Young People's Collection of Unusual Tales and Helpful Hints on How to Tell Them - Anne Pellowski
NY: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1995

Storytelling Process and Practice - Norma Livo and Sandra A. Rietz
Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1986

The Storyteller's Sourcebook: A Subject, Title, and Motif Index to Folklore Collections for Children - Margaret Read MacDonald
Detroit, MI: Neal Schuman, 1982

The Storyteller's Start-Up Book: Finding, Learning, Performing, and Using Folktales Including Twelve Tellable Tales - Margaret Read MacDonald
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1993.

Storytelling Step by Step - Marsh Cassady
San Jose, CA: Resource Publications, 1990

Telling Your Own Stories - Donald Davis
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1994

Twenty Tellable Tales: Audience Participation Folktales For the Beginning Storyteller
Margaret Read MacDonald
NY: Wilson, 1986

The Way of the Storyteller - Ruth Sawyer
NY: Viking Press, 1942

STORYTELLING AND EDUCATION top

And None of It Was Nonsense: The Power of Storytelling In the Classroom - Betty Rosen
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1988
.
Beyond The Beanstalk: Interdisciplinary Learning Through Storytelling - Lynn Rubright
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996

Children Tell Stories: A Teaching Guide - Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss
Katonah, NY: Richard Owen, 1990

Close Encounters With Deadly Dangers - Kendall Haven
Englewood, CO: Teacher Idea Press,

An Elementary Odyssey: Teaching Ancient Civilization Through Story - David H. Millstone
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1995

Figures, Facts, and Fables: Telling Tales In Science and Math - Barbara Lipke.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996

Give a Listen: Stories of Storytelling In School - Ann M. Trousdale
Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1994

How & Why Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read & Tell - Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1999

Imagination In Teaching and Learning: The Middle School Years - Kieran Egan.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992

Keepers of the Earth: Native-American Stories and Environmental Activities - Joseph Bruchac
Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 1989

Keepsakes: Using Family Stories in Elementary Classrooms - Linda Winston
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1997

Learning From the Land: Teaching Ecology Through Stories and Activities - Brian "Fox" Ellis Englewood, CO: Teacher Ideas Press, 1997

Marvels of Science - Kendall Haven
Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1994

Marvels of Math - Kendall Haven
Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1998

Medieval Knight, Read Me A Book! - Adrienne Wigdortz Anderson
Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999

The Moral of the Story: Folktales for Character Development - Bobby and Sherry Norfolk
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1999

The Need For Story: Cultural Diversity In Classroom and Community - Anne Haas Dyson and Celia Genishi.
Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1994

Once Upon A Time: Using Stories In the Language Classroom John Morgan and Mario Rinvolucri
Cambridge; NY: Cambridge University Press, 1983

One Voice: Music and Stories In the Classroom - Barbara M. Britsch and Amy Dennison-Tansey
Englewood, CO: Teacher Ideas Press, 1995

The Ordinary and the Fabulous: An Introduction to Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales- Elizabeth Cook
NY: Cambridge University Press, 1976

The Power of Storytelling: A Step-By-Step Guide To Dramatic Learning in K-12 - Harriet Mason
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 1996

Stories From the Heart: Teachers and Students Researching Their Literacy Lives - Richard J. Meyer
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996

Stories in My Pocket: Tales Kids Can Tell - Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss
Fulcrum, 1996

Stories in the Classroom: Storytelling, Reading Aloud and Roleplaying with Children - Bob Barton and David Booth Portsmouth
NH: Heineman, 1990

Storyteller, Storyteacher:Discovering the Power of Storytelling for Teaching and Living - Marni Gillard
York, ME: Stenhouse,1996

Storytelling For Young Adults: Techniques and Treasury - Gail de Vos
Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1991

Storytelling Games: Creative Activities for Language, Communication, and Composition Across the Curriculum - Doug Lipman
Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1995.

Storytelling With Shapes & Numbers - Valerie Marsh
Ft. Atkinson, WI: Alleyside Press, 1999

Tales as Tools: The Power of Story in the Classroom - National Storytelling Association Jonesborough, TN: National Storytelling Press, 1994

Teaching As Storytelling: An Alternative Approach To Teaching and Curriculum
In the Elementary School - Kieran Egan
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989

Teaching Through Stories: Yours, Mine, and Theirs - Betty Roe, Suellen Alfred, Sandy Smith
Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, 1998

Tell It Again! : Easy-To-Tell Stories With Activities For Young Children - Rebecca Isbell and Shirley C. Raines (Also Tell It Again! 2, Published 2000)
Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House, 1999

Tell Me Another: Storytelling and Reading Aloud at Home, at School, and in the Community
Bob Barton Portsmouth, NH: Heineman 1986.

Write Right!: Creative Writing Using Storytelling Techniques - Kendall Haven
Englewood, CO: Teacher Ideas Press, 1999

Writing As A Second Language: From Experience To Story To Prose - Donald Davis
Little Rock, AR: August House, 2000

COLLECTIONS OF STORIES FOR TELLING top
(don't forget to check out the 398.2 section of your library)

The principle series of authentic texts (given in the exact words of traditional tellers) is published by the University of Chicago Press (Folktales of the World). Each volume is edited by a folklorist from the culture involved. Titles include:
Folktales of Chile
Folktales of India
Folktales of China
Folktales of Ireland
Folktales of England
Folktales of Israel
Folktales of France
Folktales of Japan
Folktales of Germany
Folktales of Mexico
Folktales of Greece
Folktales of Norway
Folktales of Hungary

The principle series of rewritten folktale texts is published by Pantheon. Titles include:
African Folktales
Afro-American Folktales
American Indian Myths and Legends
British Folktales
Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies
Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
Irish Folktales
Italian Folktales
Russian Fairy Tales
Swedish Folktales

Virginia Haviland also has an extensive series published by Little, Brown and Co.
Favorite Fairy Tales Told In:
England
Germany
France
Norway
Ireland
Poland
Russia
Scotland
Spain

Best-Loved Tales: Told at the National Storytelling Festival - National Storytelling Association Jonesborough, TN: National Storytelling Press, 1991

Homespun: Tales from America's Favorite Storytellers - Smith, Jimmy Neil
NY: Crown Publishers, Inc. 1988

How Rabbit Tricked Otter and Other Cherokee Trickster Tales - Gayle Ross
NY: Harper Collins, 1994

Joining In: An Anthology of Audience Participation Stories and How to Tell Them - Norma Livo, ed. Compiled by Teresa Miller, Cambridge, MA: Yellow Moon Press, 1988

Many Voices: True Tales from America's Past - National Storytelling Association
Jonesborough, TN: National Storytelling Press, 1995

More Best-Loved Tales: Told at the National Storytelling Festival - National Storytelling Association Jonesborough, TN: National Storytelling Press, 1992

Ready-to-Tell Tales: Surefire Stories from America's Favorite Storytellers - edited by David Holt
and Bill Mooney
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1994

Shake-it-up tales! : Stories To Sing, Dance, Drum, and Act Out - Margaret Read MacDonald
Little Rock, AR: August House, 2000

Spinning Tales, Weaving Hope: Stories of Peace, Justice and the Environment - Ed Brody, et al Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1992

Stories in My Pocket: Tales Kids Can Tell - Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss
Fulcrum, 1996

The Storytellers Sourcebook - Margaret Read Macdonald
Detroit: Gale Research, 1982

A Treasury Of Trickster Tales Valerie Marsh
Fort Atkinson, WI: Alleyside Press, 1997

Twice Upon A Time: Stories To Tell, Retell, Act Out, and Write About -Judy Sierra and
Robert Kaminski
Bronx, NY: H.W. Wilson, 1989

Why the Possum's Tail is Bare and Other Classic Southern Stories - compiled by Jimmy Neil Smith
Avon Books, 1993

MULTICULTURAL COLLECTIONS top

African-American Folktales for Young Readers - Richard Young and Judy Dockery Young
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1993

Apples From Heaven: Stories About Stories and Storytelling - Naomi Baltuk
North Haven, CT: Linnet Books, The Shoestring Press, 1995

Best-Loved Folktales of the World - Joanna Cole
Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982

Celebrate the World: Twenty Tellable Folktales For Multicultural Festivals - Margaret Read McDonald
Bronx, NY: H.W. Wilson, 1994

Chosen Tales: Stories Told By Jewish Storytellers - Peninnah Schram
Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1995

Earth Care: World Folktales To Talk About Margaret Read MacDonald
North Haven, Conn: Linnet Books, 1999

Eleven Nature Tales: A Multicultural Journey Pleasant DeSpain
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1996

Eleven Turtle Tales: Adventure Tales From Around the World Pleasant DeSpain
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1994

Favorite Folktales from Around the World - Jane Yolen
NY: Pantheon Books, 1986

Folktales Told Around the World Richard M. Dorson
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975

The Golden Hoard: Myths and Legends of the World - retold by Geraldine McCaughrean
Margaret K. McEldery Books, 1995

Grandfather Tales - Richard Chase
Boston: Houghton, 1948

Here Comes the Storyteller - Joe Hayes
El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press, 1996

How & Why Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read & Tell - Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1999

In the Valley of the Ancients: A Book of Native American Legends - Lou Cuevas
Albuquerque, NM: Petroglyph National Monument, 1996

Jack Tales - Richard Chase
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943

Jump Up and Say! A Collection of Black Storytelling - Linda Goss and Clay Goss
NY: Simon and Schuster, 1995

Keepers of the Earth: Native-American Stories and Environmental Activities - Joseph Bruchac
Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 1989

One Hundred Favorite Folktales - Stith Thompson
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968

The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales - Virginia Hamilton
NY: Knopf, 1985.

The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales - Diane Wolkstein
NY: Schocken, 1980

Multicultural Folktales: Stories To Tell Young Children - Judy Sierra & Robert Kaminski
Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1991

Nursery Tales from Around the World - Judy Sierra
NY: Clarion Books, 1996

Stories to Solve: Folktales from Around the World - George Shannon
NY: Greenwillow Books, 1985

Storytellers: Folktales & Legends From the South - edited by John A. Burrison
Athens: University of Georgia Press,

Story Vine: A Sourcebook of Unusual and Easy-to-Tell Stories From Around the World - Anne Pellowski
NY: Collier Macmillan, 1984

Tales for Telling: From Around the World - selected by Mary Medlicott
Kingfisher Books, 1992, 1991

Thirty-three Multicultural Tales to Tell - Pleasant DeSpain
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1993

Trickster Tales: Forty Stories from Around the World - retold by Josepha Sherman
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1996

Twenty-two Splendid Tales to Tell From Around the World - Pleasant DeSpain
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1994

Wisdom Tales From Around The World - Heather Forest
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1996

Wonder Tales from Around the World. - Heather Forest
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1995

World Folktales: A Scribner Resource Collection - Atelia Clarkson and Gilbert B. Cross
NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980

TELLING PERSONAL AND FAMILY STORIES top

A Celebration of American Family Folklore - Steven J. Zeitlin, et al.
Cambridge, MA: Yellow Moon Press, 1982

Creating A Family Storytelling Tradition: Awakening the Hidden Storyteller - Robin Moore
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998

Keeping Family Stories Alive - Vera Rosenbluth
Point Roberts, WA: Hartly & Marks, Inc.

Keepsakes: Using Family Stories in Elementary Classrooms - Linda Winston
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1997

The Power of Personal Storytelling - Jack Maguire
NY: Jeremy P Tarcher/Putnam, 1998

Strudel Stories - Joanne Rocklin
NY: Delacorte Press, 1999

Telling Your Own Stories - Donald Davis
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1994

Your Family History: How to use oral history, personal family archives, and public documents to discover your heritage - Allan J Lichtman
NY: Random House, 1978.

ABOUT STORYTELLING top

Burning Brightly: New Light on Old Tales Told Today - Kay Stone
Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 1998

The Folktale - Stith Thompson
NY: Dryden, 1946

Effects of Storytelling: An Ancient Art for Modern Classrooms - Catharine Horne Farrell and Denise D. Nessel
Fund, 1982

Jack In Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales and Their Tellers edited by William Bernard McCarthy; tales edited by William Bernard McCarthy, Cheryl Oxford, Joseph Daniel Sobol
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994

Jackie Tales: The Magic of Creating Stories and the Art of Telling Them - by Jackie Torrence
NY: Avon Books, 1998

Nursery Tales Around the World - Judy Sierra
NY: Clarion, 1996

The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales - the Western fairytale tradition from medieval to modern - Jack Zipes, editor
London/NY: Oxford University Press, 2000

The Parent's Guide to Storytelling - Margaret Read MacDonald
NY: HarperCollins, 1995

The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell
NY: Doubleday, 1988

Putting the World in a Nutshell: The Art of the Formula Tale - Sheila Dailey
Bronx, NY: H.W. Wilson, 1994

Storytelling Folklore Sourcebook - Norma J. Livo, Sandra A. Rietz
Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1991

The Storyteller's Journal: An American Revival - Joseph Sobol
Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999

Story, Performance, and Event: Contextual Studies of Oral Narrative - Richard Bauman
Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1986

Storytellers' Research Guide: Folktales Myths and Legends - Judy Sierra
Eugene, OR: Folkprint, 1996

Storytelling: A Selected Annotated Bibliography - Ellin Greene and George Shannon
NY: Garland Pub, 1986

Storytelling: Art & Technique - Augusta Baker and Ellin Greene
NY: R. R. Bowker, 1977

The Storytelling Coach: How to Listen, Praise, and Bring Out People's Best - Doug Lipman
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1995

Storytelling Encyclopedia - Historical, Cultural, and Multiethnic Approaches of Oral Traditions Around the World - David Adams Leeming
AZ: Oryx Press, 1997

Storytelling: Process and Practice - Norma Livo and Sandra A. Rietz
Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1986

Storytelling Professionally: The Nuts and Bolts of A Working Performer - Harlynne Geisler
Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1997

Storytelling: Readings/Bibliographies/Resources - Association for Library Service to Children
Chicago: American Library Association, 1978

The Storytime Sourcebook: A Compendium of Ideas & Resources for Storytellers - Carolyn N. Cullum
NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1999

Tell Me A Tale: A Book About Storytelling - Joseph Bruchac
San Diego, CA: Harcourt, 1997

Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie and Folklore in the Literature of Childhood- Jane Yolen
NY: Philomel Books. 1981

Traditional Storytelling Today: An International Sourcebook - edited by Margaret Read MacDonald
Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1999

The Types of the Folk-Tale: A Classification and Bibliography - Antti Amatus Aarne, Translated by Stith Thompson
Lenox, NY 1928

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales - Bruno Bettelheim
NY: Random House, 1977

Who Says? - Carol Band and Melissa Heckler
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1996

STORIES ABOUT STORIES OR STORYTELLING top

Albert's Story - Claudia Long
NY: Delacorte Press, 1978

Aunt Isabel Tells A Good One - Kate Duke
NY: Dutton Children's Books, 1994

The Chicken Salad Club - Marsha Diane Arnold
NY: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1998

The Colored Garden - by O.H. Bennett
Grand Bay, AL: Laughing Owl Pub., 2000

From Miss Ida's Porch - Sandra Belton
NY: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1998

Front Porch Stories At the One-Room School - Eleanora E. Tate
NY: Bantam, 1992

Grandfather Tang's Story - Ann Tompert
NY: Crown Publishers, 1990

Grange House - Sarah Blake
NY: Picador USA, 2000

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night - Janet and Allan Ahlberg
London, England: New York, NY: Viking, 1993

Juliet's Story - William Trevor
NY: Simon & Schuster, 1994

Keepers - Jeri Hanel Watts
NY: Lee & Low Books, 1997

Painted Words: Marianthe's Story, One; Spoken Memories: Marianthe's Story, Two - Aliki
NY: Greenwillow Books, 1998

Putnam & Pennyroyal - Patrick Jennings
NY: Scholastic Press, 1999

Red Earth and Pouring Rain : A Novel - Vikram Chandra.
Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1995

Serefina Under the Circumstances - Phyllis Theroux
NY: Greenwillow Books, 1999

Seth of the Lion People - Bonnie Pryor
NY: Morrow Junior Books, 1988

The Story of the Three Kingdoms - Walter Dean Myers
NY: HarperCollins, 1995

The Storytellers - Ted Lewin
NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1998

Strudel Stories - Joanne Rocklin
NY: Delacorte Press, 1999

The Talking Bird and the Story Pouch - Amy Lawson
NY: Harper & Row, 1987

Tell Me A Story, Dad - retold by Virginia Ferguson and Peter Durkin
Santa Rosa, CA: SRA School Group, 1994

Three Up A Tree - by James Marshall
Simon & Schuster ed. Needham, MA: Silver Burdett Ginn, 1996

The Treasure Hunt - by Bill Cosby
NY: Scholastic Inc., 1997

Tundra Mouse: A Storyknife Tale - Megan McDonald
NY: Orchard Books, 1997

What Happens Next? - Janina Domanska
NY: Greenwillow Books, 1983

The Worry Stone - by Marianna Dengler
Flagstaff, AZ: Rising Moon, 1996

SCARY STORY COLLECTIONS top

Favorite Scary Stories of American Children - Richard and Judy Dockery Young
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1990

The Ghost and I: Scary Stories for Participatory Telling - Jennifer Justice, ed.
Cambridge, MA: Yellow Moon Press, 1992

Haunted Bayou and Other Cajun Ghost Stories - JJ Reneaux
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1994

Short and Shivery: Thirty Chilling Tales - Robert D. San Souci
Doubleday, 1987

When the Lights Go Out: Twenty Scary Tales To Tell - Margaret Read MacDonald
Bronx, NY: H.W. Wilson Co., 1988