Description
You will discover that you are a storyteller. As you tell your fairytale, your children will open their eyes wide and stare at you in wonder. But they won’t see you. They will look through you to a world of magic and mountains connecting them with nature.
The sequel to the award-winning Natural Storyteller: Wildlife tales for telling, by Georgiana Keable.
“This superb resource and inspiration will empower parents, teachers and storytellers.”
Renata Allen, The Story Museum, Oxford
“Everyone, new and seasoned storytellers alike, can find inspiration in this book. It is full of experience and wisdom, written with a great love of story and children.”
Tine Winther, Sagobygden (Land of Legends Sweden)
This book is:
- Jam-packed with stunning stories, singing games and rhymes of nature for ages 0–7 years
- A perfect resource for parents, pre-school, nursery, infant, special needs, forest school and kindergarten educators
- Confidence building, helping you to create your own stories and find stories to meet and deal with problems
- Brimming with ideas for celebrating birthdays and the seasons
- Exploring language development and comprehension using our story tree
- Full of stories of kinship to wolf cub, elf, bat, sun and moon
- A collection of tales to reclaim our forests and nurture our nature
“… [O]pens the gates of wonder in ways that everyone can understand and share across the generations.”
Donald Smith, Director, Scottish International Storytelling Festival
“What a magical and enriching book, filled with wisdom, knowledge and love.”
Danyah Miller, storyteller
“Storytelling is the daisy chain that connects the generations of the human family. It anchors the child by firing the imagination and building the adult. The art of storytelling found in Fairytales, Families and Forests is a guidebook for every parent to explore.”
Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of To Speak for the Trees
Contents
- Introduction, Dr Sebastian Suggate
- The Authors
- Storytelling and language development
- The Oral tradition
- Storytelling with your growing child
- Stories of Outside, Stories for Inside
- Festival Story Year
- Building creativity and confidence
- Storytelling with groups
- Starting a family storytelling circle
- Research on Stories and Education
- Index of Stories
- References and resources
“Thank you for your contribution to the tradition of storytelling. I have just ready ‘Fairytales, Families and Forests’ and I really enjoyed the tales and the way they are told. I keep telling my wife who teaches young children that FFF is one of my favourites. I love, among others Little Mikki and the birthday story.”
A reader in Spain
The Authors
Georgiana Keable lives on Opsal farm. She founded ‘Fortellerhuset’ (The Storytelling House), the Norwegian Storytelling Festival and received Oslo’s Artists Prize for outstanding contribution to cultural life. Her award-winning book The Natural Storyteller is also published by Hawthorn Press.
Dawne McFarlane’s Scottish grandfather gave the gift of storytelling to her. She lives in Canada, or Turtle Island. A mother, performing artist, Waldorf teacher and mentor, Dawne is engaged with global storytelling communities and deeply committed to honouring tradition bearers.
Illustrator
Araiz Mesanza is an illustrator from the Basque region of Spain and studied illustration in Barcelona. She is currently based in Oslo, Norway.
“The book is life affirming. All of its stories are about taking delight in creation. But what makes her book unique is that her years of working as a storyteller give it a sense of adventure and fun. She knows how to talk with children. She is chatty and engaging. The book is a journey into storytelling as well as story. She understands that once a story is learnt it actually works its way into the nervous system. It becomes part of you.”
Hugh Lupton, award-winning Storyteller
“A life of dedication to nature, storytelling and young people courses through the pages of The Natural Storyteller. It is written with intimacy, information and chock full of good stories and creative reflective activities. A wonderful and needed resource for children in today’s world.”
Laura Simms, leading US storyteller and author
“The Natural Storyteller is a gorgeous heart-warming book full of stories that children (and people any age!) can relate to. It is a collection of stories, carefully gathered over a period of years, from all over the world. What steals my heart about this book is that it unflinchingly addresses the turmoil and realities of life in the 21st century. This book is that rare thing: it unlocks emotions, ideas and a wild surge of creativity.”
Imelda Almqvist, Paganpages
“On a cold winter’s night, I found myself running out into the world through Georgiana’s storytelling. I wasn’t the only one. My companions, world-leading climate scientists, swiftly followed. There is something so wonderfully comforting about listening to a story – Comforting and challenging – stories have so much to say to us, if we would but listen. In an increasingly fragmented world, suffering the impacts of climate change, stories bridge divides and bring us back together. Let Georgiana’s stories open your eyes and ears once more. A glorious anthology that grounds our feet in the roots of the earth and opens our hearts to each other.”
Professor Ros Cornforth, meteorologist and Director of The Walker Institute for Climate System Research
“The Natural Storyteller is testament to the grace, mystery and joy that have always animated our human relationships with the earth. The stories in Georgiana Keable’s brilliantly chosen collection welcome us back into that special space and place, in which hearts, minds and spirits know we truly belong.”
Dr Donald Smith, Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre
“This collection of short stories encompasses enthralling tales from India, Scandinavia, Africa, Russia, Afghanistan and England and include story maps, story skeletons and riddles alongside each tale to aid the narrator’s memory in the retelling of the tales. Extension activities are included so would be useful for teachers, librarians or forest school leaders. Reading through these stories I was struck by their simplicity, warmth and compelling characters.”
Kate Haines for Greenfinder
