88 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great resource for telling stories, August 15, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Campfire Stories, Vol. 1: Things That Go Bump in the Night (Campfire Books) (Paperback)
This is an easy book to tell stories from. There is a good section at the begining of the book, giving tips on how to tell stories At the end of each story, there is a review of the story in point form so you don't have to read them to your audience. You can actually "tell" them the story. The stories are adaptable to many settings and I have used many of them around different campfires for youth aged 5 to 18. The stories also have endings that will not have younger youth having nightmares and having "accidents" in their sleeping bags. I highly recommend it for any story teller, scouter, guide leader etc.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dare to scare your younger Scouts..., October 2, 2007
This review is from: Campfire Stories, Vol. 1: Things That Go Bump in the Night (Campfire Books) (Paperback)
Should you need to pick between the available Scout campfire story books instead of buying them all, don't leave Dr. William Forgey's "CAMPFIRE STORIES: Things that Go Bump in the Night" off of your list.
"Stories to be good have to be credible" is the advice Forgey gives, and it's the credibility factor that sets this collection apart. These tales sound so real your audience may not see them as fiction. Youths 11 to 15 years old, (the suggested age group) will believe them up to a point, and they will like them. Properly told, even an adult audience should find some meat this anthology. Although the book is marketed to Scout leaders in particular, these are not "Scout" stories for the most part. Your non-Scout youth group will like them.
Besides the original stories created by the author, CAMPFIRE STORIES includes Forgey's masterful adaptations of uncommon vintage ghost stories penned by others, and even offers a true tale, "Death of an Old Lion" as told by Ernest Thompson Seton. Even a story by Mark Twain comes included. All of these stories are highly memorable, with entertaining, suspenseful plots. In "The Valley of the Blue Mist," Forgey shares his version of this old story, which is found elsewhere under other names, but his is the best version I've yet seen.
Only two of the stories out of the twenty were a disappointment: "La Cucaracha Mine," a pointless, plotless hole, and "The Indian Chief's Wait," which you will soon figure out is that familiar joke story, "Falling Rocks" in a poorly disguised form. The 5 stars are for the other eighteen "must-have" stories.
At least the storytelling advice given in this book is practical and useful. Forgey includes a sequentially-numbered plot outline at the conclusion of each story, which I don't find necessary, but I'm certain many will find these most helpful. This book is a bargain!
-Byron C. Justice, author of
Haunted Camps
and
Violent Night
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15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What camp did you go to., July 7, 2003
This review is from: Campfire Stories, Vol. 1: Things That Go Bump in the Night (Campfire Books) (Paperback)
I dont think the author of this book every sat at a campfire, let alone told a scary story. The 7 and 10 year olds at our campfire got up and walked away and the adults just moaned. Nothing but goody two shoes morals for endings and no suspence. Make up your own stories instead of purchasing this book.
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