This is an extract from a review due to appear in Facts & Fiction Magazine, which can be bought here…
The Storytelling School Handbook For Teachers by Chris Smith and Adam Guillain – review by Martin Maudsley
I particularly liked the book’s simple, but high potential, idea for Storytelling Schools to use six different stories, one each half-term, through the year so that by the end of a six year primary education all their pupils would leave with a precious 36-piece story hoard firmly lodged in their memories! From beginning to end the book recognises that empowering teachers to become storytellers is a vital element, and suggests practical ways that the teacher can step into the storytelling role and in so doing develop both their confidence and repertoire.
Perhaps, if anything, there is another ‘I’ in storytelling that is less well represented here: imagination. Whilst the chapters on innovation and invention cover how new story settings, characters and plots can be successfully created, in my experience as a storyteller in schools it’s the vivid mental imagery that arises when children hear good stories, well told, that has the biggest impact. Subsequently, when children explore and express their own imagination, incredibly powerful oral storytelling comes to life in a way that doesn’t always fit (or need to do so) within a rigid story structure. This is probably more a reflection on the limitations of the book’s scope rather than a criticism of its content and it’s heartening to note that the book implores the valuable, additional role of hiring professional storytellers within the classroom…
…having had a chance to read this inspiring and informative book, I would very happily buy another copy to present to my own children’s school in the hope that they too would be inspired to take the first steps in becoming a Storytelling School, which undoubtedly would be of great benefit (and enjoyment) to pupils, staff and parents alike.
Buy The Storytelling School: Handbook for Teachers here…