Through the Grapevine

This is my favorite of the Hamilton and Weiss books. Through the Grapevine... is one of our family favorites! My children find the stories appealing not just once, but many times over. They read, tell, and make puppet shows out of these tales.These tales are perfect for a school storytelling festival. So often children can't find good tales to tell on their own. This is a great resource for teachers; assign one story to each child, to read and tell. Each child has an equal chance to create a really wonderful telling. Solid plots are offered as well as proper story form teaching children to have a beginning, middle, and end. They even offer a bit of coaching for each tale so teachers can learn what to look for and suggest. Kids can do it themselves with this format or as a team.I first bought this book for myself. Good storytellers are always looking for great plots to expand and tell. Hamilton and Weiss even tell you to add your own voice or develop your own way of telling these stories. They explain what culture the tales come from and offer a great bibliographic resource.The illustrations compliment the stories. Looking at the picture before each story can help children feel familiar with the tale before reading it. Judging the book by the cover made me want to dive right in.I really use this book!

Through The Grapevine is a recommended pick for families as well as small groups: storytellers Hamilton and Weiss provide over thirty world tales geared to reading aloud - by kids. Kids are encouraged to add drama and personality to the stories, which represent over twenty countries and traditions around the world. An excellent guide for budding young drama students.