Shake-It-Up Tales!

Really a good book for storytellers - beginners or seasoned. Good tips for expanding the stories and making them your own.

Wow! Margaret Read MacDonald's latest just quivers with energy. This book gives great tips for getting kids involved in storytime. There are songs to dance to (my personal favorites!), sing to, drum to, and act out, whether you're telling to a big group, a small group, all kids, kids and parents . . . you get the idea. There's such a wealth of information here, I can't wait for the school year to start so I can try out all these new stories. Highly recommended!

Each chapter in this book is filled with tales that encourage audience participation and interaction. The stories are simple to learn and to tell and involve all sorts of activities such as singing, dancing, drumming, acting and improvisation. Each story is accompanied by any necessary music and a list of materials or props. At the end of each story, MacDonald has included "Tips for Telling" which outlines a strategy for the storyteller and "About the Story" which offers some more information about the story. Each chapter begins with a short description of the actions required in the chapter and some behind the scenes tips for controlling the audience. In addition to the full-text stories that are included in each chapter, MacDonald recommends other stories that would be appropriate for the same actions. Chapters are organized to encourage the reader to take on more complicated storytelling roles as they progress through the book. Beginning chapters are dedicated to one action such as singing or drumming while final chapters include using actors from the audience and creating a story theatre. Another nice feature of this resource is that stories come from all over the world, from Thailand to Gambia to China. This would make these stories an excellent addition to a cultural or geographic study on a specific country. This book would be a great purchase for anyone working with children. MacDonald's comments make storytelling much less mysterious or frightening for those not used to performing in front of a group. The twenty tales included here, along with the many others that she suggests make for unending ideas.