Customer Reviews

Just Enough to Make a Story: A Sourcebook for Storytelling

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Like all good storytellers, Nancy Schimmel starts with a story. She than discusses the story behind the story. Finally, the author makes the point that we are all storytellers. Some of us are naturally better than others. She points out that this book will help storytellers acquire the skills of a good storyteller.

Just Enough to Make a Story is full of good, practical advice. It is also a super resource. It contains a number of complete stories and themed lists of stories. Schimmel starts off with several chapters on the basics of storytelling. Then she moves on to the stories. Next she discusses where to use stories and why to use stories. Finally she introduces several themes with annotated lists of stories.

The stories included are very tell-able as written. There are also illustrations and detailed instructions for several paper folding stories. One story, The Pancake, is for two tellers. This book includes sources and stories for all ages.

The source notes are fabulous. They include where the story came from or how she came by the idea for an original story. Schimmel notes if there are various versions and in what book the stories can be found.

I recommend this book. There is good advice from a seasoned teller. The resources are also very useful. My only criticism of this book is that the font is too small. I would prefer that this book was a large trade book size.
Karen Woodworth-Roman

I'm very found of this book. Yes, really!
I'm a mother of two and this book helped me a lot.
How to choose a story? How to memorize it? How to tell it?
This is the questions that i asked myself and i received
many answers! And also, what to prefer: books with pictures,
puppets, origami, songs, to go with these stories.
Nancy Schimmel advised me very good.
There are also beautiful stories and the right way to tell them..
THe story of the tailor is the favourite of my elder son (7).
But there are others as: a story for Heather, a raincoat (origami), the Pancake ( a tandem story),the Lionmakers (a story
used for the education of princes in India), the Handsome Prince
(origami that intrigued very much my son).
Nancy Schimmel explain also how to tell stories in house and
elsewhere (school....)
If you look for list of good books about stories to tell to adults, stories with active heroines, peace and ecologie stories,
you don't disapointed!
This 57 pages book is wonderful!

This is an excellent source book for teachers and storytellers.The material is well presented, and easy to adapt to various techniques. For beginners or old hats, this is a very useful text.

J'ai beaucoup aimé ce livre. Oui, vraiment beaucoup! Je suis mère de deux enfants et ce livre m'a beaucoup aidée. Comment choisir une histoire? Comment la mémoriser? Comment la raconter? Voici les questions que je me posais et j'ai reçu beaucoup de réponses! Et aussi, que préférer: des livres avec des images, des marionnettes, le pliage de papier, des chansons, pour accompagner ces histoires. Nancy Schimmel m'a bien conseillée. Il y a aussi de très belle histoires et la façon de les raconter...L'histoire du tailleur est la préférée de mon fils aîné. Mais il y en d'autres comme: une histoire pour Heather, le chapeau de pluie (origami), le pancake (une histoire à deux voix), les faiseurs de lions (une histoire employée pour l'éducation des princes en Inde), le beau prince (origami, une histoire qui a beaucoup intriguée mon fils de 6 ans). Nancy Schimmel explique aussi comment raconter des histoires à la maison et ailleurs (écoles....). Si vous cherchez des listes de bons livres, en anglais, sur des histoires à raconter aux adultes, des histoires avec des héroines actives, des histoires au service de la paix ou des histoires sur l'écologie vous ne serez pas déçus! Ce livre de 57 pages tient toutes ses promesses.