This review, written by Kevin Avison, originally appeared in the SWSF (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship) newsletter, Spring 2018. Many thanks!
Georgiana Keable has written a gift of a book that will help teachers, parents and anyone who loves good stories. If we are to preserve human culture from the sort of madness and decline that currently seems all but inevitable, positive narrative holds an important place. We might go so far as to describe well chosen and well told stories as antitoxin for the social ills of our civilisation.
Narrative can open minds and hearts to worlds and experiences beyond the narrow compass of a single individual: through stories we learn compassion.
Georgiana provides a selection of forty-eight stories to fire the heart and imagination of both teller and listener. She also relates her selection to the natural world. Alongside “Story Heart” and “Story mind”, we have groups of stories from around the world, in which trees, birds, animals, earth, water and weather feature. Thus placing each individual is brought to life within a greater narrative.
The book includes an easy-to-use toolkit to help the story-teller, or teacher, inhabit the stories, adding memory and understanding of what they are about. In particular, the “story map” and “story skeleton”, will prove invaluable in assisting hard-pressed teachers prepare story their material. There are also activities, riddles and a host of helpful suggestions and hints. As an international master story-teller with foundations both in Norway and the Britain, Georgiana has drawn deeply from her experience teaching at Oslo University and participating in story-telling events around the world.
Buy the book here…
More about the SWSF here…