Happily Ever After: Sharing Folk Literature with Elementary and Middle School Students

by Terrell A. Young (Editor)

Anansi, Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, and the Three Little Pigs are just a few of the beloved characters whose stories have been shared for generations. Their adventures, rooted in the oral storytelling tradition, have been recorded as folk literature in every corner of the world.

Because folk literature represents a large portion of the trade books published for children and young adults, elementary and middle school teachers and librarians need a resource to help them understand and use this genre with students. Happily Ever After: Sharing Folk Literature With Elementary and Middle School Students defines folk literature and provides ideas for teaching it, making it not only a practical resource for classroom teachers and librarians but also an appropriate textbook for teacher education courses.

The book is divided into four sections. Section one provides an overview of traditional literature. Section two examines the subgenres of folk literature, helping readers to better understand folk tales and fairy tales, fables, myths, legends, and tall tales. Section three deals with traditional literature across cultures and includes thought-provoking chapters dealing with African, Asian, European, Jewish, Latino, Middle Eastern and South Asian, and Native American folk literature. Section four looks at how teachers might use folk literature in their classrooms through drama, writing, comparing versions and variants of a single tale type, and collecting oral folklore and adapting it to the written form. Throughout the chapters, authors show how folk literature can extend students' literacy and love of reading through a range of classroom applications spanning the full range of the language arts.

This book will be a valuable resource to guide teachers, librarians, and students in experiencing the "happily ever after" magic found in folk literature.

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Terrell received a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University and began his career by teaching elementary school in Wyoming. He then taught for two years in Venezuela. He received a master’s degree from Utah State University and an EdD from Brigham Young University. After that, he taught at the University of Texas-Arlington for a short time. He then taught Literacy at Washington State University for 21 years.

Terrell is currently a professor of Children's Literature at Brigham Young University's David O. McKay School of Education.