Creative Storytelling: Building Community/Changing Lives

Jack Zipes is a master storyteller who cares deeply about his craft. Long a champion of folk tales, he is among those who have reinvigorated storytelling as a highly successful and engaging tool for teachers and pofessional storytellers. In Creative Storytelling , Zipes argues in a lively and thought-provoking manner for storytelling as animation, intervention, subversion and self-discovery. Encouraging storytellers, elementary school teachers and public libraries to play an active role in this magical process, Zipes proposes an interactive storytelling that has the power to create and strengthen a sense of community for students, teachers and parents. This practical, down-to-earth manual does not prescribe any one storytelling method, but rather shares existing and proven methods with guidelines for both use and adaptation. Zipes encourages storytellers to play with models, ethical principles, canons of literature and social standards to test if they are worthy of the children’s respect or are useful in their particular community. Zipes focuses on storytelling to children between the age of 6 and 10, but his ideas have relevance for all age groups including pre-schoole and adults. His storytelling program spans three months and includes stories to work with - introducing various literary genres such as fantasy, legend and science fiction to children in an active ‘hands-on’ manner so that their writing, reading, acting and drawing skills are animated. This inspiring guide to storytelling transforms learning in places as disparate as schools and youth centres and libraries. It is a vital handbook for all who include storytelling as part of their particular recipe for changing the face of education today.