WORLD STORIES RETOLD
[Illustration: GLAD COMRADESHIP WITH THE GLADNESS OF A CHILD]
WORLD STORIES
RETOLD
FOR
MODERN BOYS AND GIRLS
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SEVEN FIVE-MINUTE CLASSIC STORIES FOR
RETELLING IN HOME, SUNDAY-SCHOOL, CHILDREN’S SERVICES, PUBLIC
SCHOOL GRADES, AND “THE STORY-HOUR” IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES
With Practical Suggestions for Telling
BY
WILLIAM JAMES SLY, PH. D.
Director of Sunday-School and Young People’s Work, and Teacher
of Sunday-School Pedagogy in Colorado Woman’s College
PHILADELPHIA
THE GRIFFITH & ROWLAND PRESS
BOSTON ST. LOUIS
CHICAGO TORONTO, CAN.
Copyright 1914 by
A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary
Published December, 1914
TO
Ellsworth
AND
THE HOSTS OF BOYS AND GIRLS SCATTERED
EVERYWHERE TO WHOM I HAVE TOLD
MANY OF THESE STORIES AND FROM
WHOM I HAVE RECEIVED WARM
APPRECIATION AND LOVE
PREFACE
This book is intended chiefly for the home. It is an aid to parents in
introducing their children to some of the best stories in the world. It
will be of obvious value also to Sunday-school teachers, ministers who
preach to children, public-school teachers, kindergartners, librarians,
and to all who perceive that the story method is the golden method of
teaching.
“Where can I find suitable stories to tell?” is a frequent question
asked by lovers of children who take seriously their cry of
soul-hunger, “Tell me a story!” Oral story-telling within recent years
has had a remarkable revival, and a response to both the child’s and
the parent’s plea has been made in a number of charming collections
of children’s stories and manuals on the art of story-telling. But it
is well known that books of stories with material in a form readily
adapted for telling are very few. Fewer still have attempted to gather
into one volume those old favorites which should be the heritage of
each succeeding generation of children. True, there are collections
in many volumes, such as “The Children’s Hour,” in ten volumes;
the “Junior Classics,” in ten volumes; and the series, “What Every
Child Should Know,” in twenty volumes; but these, admirable in many
respects, are bulky, expensive, and forbidden to all except the favored
children of the rich. Mothers frequently ask for something condensed,
comprehensive, and simple. It is to meet such a need, often expressed
to him, that the author has gathered, during a number of years of
experience in moral and religious education, these World Stories for
telling to modern boys and girls.
Almost all of the many stories in this book he has himself told at
various times before differing audiences of children, young people,
and adults--audiences varying from one or two open-eyed listeners in
the home, or the little group in the country Sunday-school or wayside
schoolhouse, to the large classes and assemblies in high schools,
colleges, city libraries, Sunday-schools, churches, and conventions.
In many cases children and young people have retold these stories in
almost the exact language here given.
The principle on which these stories have been adapted and rewritten
is largely that of condensation. There is undoubtedly a certain
cultural atmosphere created in the very language and spirit of these
fine old tales, but the descriptive adornments often lead to a length
that is unattractive to the busy mother or teacher, as well as trying
to the strength of mind and memory of the child. Given the real
facts, illustrating the moral principle desired to be imparted, the
story-teller may elaborate as much as imagination, interest, and time
permit. After such an early introduction in childhood to these stories
that for unnumbered generations have furnished food to mind, memory,
heart, and will, the boy and girl will experience a keener joy in after
years when the fuller versions are read in the original or in larger
books.
In the preparation of these pages, the author has been favored with
the generous counsel, aid, and encouragement of specialists in child
psychology, pedagogy, and story-telling, among whom mention must be
made especially of Dr. Richard Morse Hodge, of Columbia University,
one of whose articles printed in “Religious Education” suggested
this work; Dr. Henry F. Cope, Secretary of the Religious Education
Association; John L. Alexander, Secondary Division Superintendent of
the International Sunday School Association; and my friend, Dr. Irving
E. Miller, of Rochester University, and author of “The Psychology of
Thinking.” To these, as well as to a host of teachers and principals of
public schools, pastors and superintendents in churches, and mothers
and fathers in homes, who so graciously permitted experimentation with
these stories, gratitude is sincerely expressed.
WILLIAM J. SLY.
UNIVERSITY PARK, DENVER, COLO.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I. THE ART OF STORY-TELLING
PAGE
I. VALUE OF STORIES 3
II. THE PERIODS OF INTEREST IN STORIES 16
III. TYPES OF STORIES TO TELL 23
IV. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR STORY-TELLING 36
V. GAMES WITH STORIES 41
VI. USE OF THE ETHICAL INDEX 44