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Tell Me a Fairy Tale: A Parent's Guide to Telling Magical and Mythical Stories
From the classics of the Grimm Brothers and Mother Goose to Native American and Japanese favorites, each entry includes a short description of the characters, a detailed plot summary, and a section on how best to tell the story. Suggestions include ways to leave out the scary parts, eliminate sexism, or update them--without changing the story's meaning.
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1995
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12 people want to read
About the author
Bill Adler Jr.
50 books73 followersBill Adler Jr. is an American writer living in Tokyo.
He's the author of Outwitting Squirrels (The Wall Street Journal: "A masterpiece"; Boing Boing: "One of the funniest books I've ever read"), Boys and Their Toys: Understanding Men by Understanding Their Relations With Gadgets, Tell Me a Fairy Tale: A Parent's Guide to Telling Mythical and Magical Stories, and No Time to Say Goodbye, a time travel novella, and other books.
He's the author of Outwitting Squirrels (The Wall Street Journal: "A masterpiece"; Boing Boing: "One of the funniest books I've ever read"), Boys and Their Toys: Understanding Men by Understanding Their Relations With Gadgets, Tell Me a Fairy Tale: A Parent's Guide to Telling Mythical and Magical Stories, and No Time to Say Goodbye, a time travel novella, and other books.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 18, 2008
Like this...a quick refresher on fairy tales...has the main characters listed, the plot, a short summary, and then ways to spice up or change the story...
August 3, 2016
Reviews in the works. When I was a kid, books in general were different. Of course we always had the classics, mostly derived from older works from even farther back. But I can remember the box of books I had from my mom that had stories about toads, frogs, pandas, bears, etc. I actually had those well into my adulthood. I loved every book or story that I had heard and passed on several of these to my own kids.
It wasn’t until I was older that I really found out how different the versions are. I started to learn this in the last few years as my daughter Otelia really got into the different stories, movies, t.v. shows that surround them. I admit it, she got me hooked too! It’s opened up our eyes not only to the difference but to the perception of them. It’s so creative!
That’s why I loved reading this book! Bill made a wonderful introduction into why he even started the book. Touching on his own daughters love of a particular story and how it intrigued him to find out the exact story along with the exhaustive need to get it just right. Through his research he was able to find out the nearly whole story and then broke it down to make more sense. I appreciate that because no matter how old your kids are, for a lot of us there is still that love of the old stories.
It also really helped to have it set up into a certain outline of sorts that gives you the major information. The characters, the background, and the main events. You can fill it in as well with what you have known before. Shoot there’s a few in there I knew very little about.
With that though it becomes the frustration where I felt like I’d have to memorize most of it in order to “tell” the story again. It would take some practice to use it more as a guide than reading straight out as a story.
Overall, it’s a great guide and read. I enjoyed it and learned a few new things. Which is always a plus when you love reading like I do!
My star rating: 4 out of 5 stars
It wasn’t until I was older that I really found out how different the versions are. I started to learn this in the last few years as my daughter Otelia really got into the different stories, movies, t.v. shows that surround them. I admit it, she got me hooked too! It’s opened up our eyes not only to the difference but to the perception of them. It’s so creative!
That’s why I loved reading this book! Bill made a wonderful introduction into why he even started the book. Touching on his own daughters love of a particular story and how it intrigued him to find out the exact story along with the exhaustive need to get it just right. Through his research he was able to find out the nearly whole story and then broke it down to make more sense. I appreciate that because no matter how old your kids are, for a lot of us there is still that love of the old stories.
It also really helped to have it set up into a certain outline of sorts that gives you the major information. The characters, the background, and the main events. You can fill it in as well with what you have known before. Shoot there’s a few in there I knew very little about.
With that though it becomes the frustration where I felt like I’d have to memorize most of it in order to “tell” the story again. It would take some practice to use it more as a guide than reading straight out as a story.
Overall, it’s a great guide and read. I enjoyed it and learned a few new things. Which is always a plus when you love reading like I do!
My star rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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May 16, 2011This book was everything I needed to begin to tell my daughter stories aloud. Concise synopses ofstories from the beloved to the unknown and tips on how to tell them...Wonderful!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews