Holiday Stories All Year Round: Audience Participation Stories and More

(Paperback)

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Description

Share stories about popular holidays, from New Year's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and President's Day, to Indian Heritage Month, Christmas, and Kwanzaa with stories from some of our most renowned and beloved storytellersLaura Simms, Diane Wolkstein, Ruth Stotter, Joseph Bruchac, Margaret Read MacDonald, and many others. These stories, presented chronologically according to the holidays, come with instructions for how to get your audience involved, plus reading connections, activity ideas and holiday background information. This collection will help educators, librarians, and storytellers create holiday-based story programs from January to December; and it is a wonderful resource for enhancing learning units, filling in empty moments, and loosening up an audience. Most of all, it gives you some great ways to share important times together.

Reviews

The 30 stories contained in this volume include contributions from such luminaries as Diane Wolkstein, Peninnah Schram, Laura Simms, and Joseph Bruchac, as well as others who have devoted their lives to bringing story to others through the powerful medium of oral narration. The selections themselves cover a broad range of holidays, including those that might be expectedNew Year's Day, the Fourth of July, etc.as well as lesser-known celebrations, such as the Thai New Year. Ways for the audience to participate in the tellings are included with each tale, with uneven success. A stirring refrain or even a brief brainstorming session may indeed provide the kind of 'mutual ownership' Miller describes in her introduction, but random questions interjected into a story often serve only to interrupt the narrative flow or break a mood that otherwise might have been created. There are a great many selections about peace, a good thing in and of itself, but most of them are so message driven that they don't always stand as stories. There is useful background information at the end of each tale, but suggestions for Internet sites rely heavily on Wikipedia. Activities suggested are unexceptional, often relying on mundane cut and paste. Still, storytellers in need of material specifically related to holidays should find sufficient fodder here to warrant purchase. * School Library Journal *

Author Bio

Violet Teresa deBarba Miller tells stories as Teresa Miller. She compiled Joining In: An Anthology of Audience Participation Stories and How to Tell Them, with assistance from Anne Pellowski, edited by Norma Livo, Introduction by Laura Simms.