Storycraft: 50 Theme‐based Programs Combining Storytelling, Activities and Crafts for Children in Grades 1‐3

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2002), "Storycraft: 50 Theme‐based Programs Combining Storytelling, Activities and Crafts for Children in Grades 1‐3", Library Review, Vol. 51 No. 5, pp. 269-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.2002.51.5.269.3

Storytelling and activities go together in children’s work. Drawing on their experience as children’s librarians in Connecticut in the USA, Simpson and Perrigo provide an attractive and useful guide to 50 themes likely to appeal to children grades 1 to 3 (ages six to eight years). Simpson has written other things (Reading Programs for Young Adults, 1997; Environmental Awareness Activities for Librarians and Teachers, 1997; Summer Reading Clubs, 1992, all from McFarland), while Perrigo has a special interest in children’s activities and clowns. The Storycraft programme started in the summer of 1997 at Stratford Connecticut, and the programme won the Outstanding Literature Program Award of the ALSC in 1999. The book is a guide and sourcebook for librarians (and teachers and parents, where appropriate) developing and running storytelling and activity sessions and workshops with younger children.

Each of the 50 units contains a bulletin board (how to advertise the session), background music (CD or audio‐cassette), opening activity (setting the mood), stories, participation activity (like guessing game, dance), craft (materials needed), suggested booktalks, other resources (such as magazines, sound recordings), and patterns (for craft projects, with diagrams which can be traced or blown up for group use). The programmes themselves fall into categories:

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  animals (cats, creepy crawlies, dragons, dinosaurs, birds, monsters);

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  relationships (family, friendships, weddings, being naughty);

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  activities (drums, bands, dressing up, magic, dancing, flying a kite, playing with puppets);

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  travel (trains, safari, outer space);

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  sports and hobbies, learning (calendar, weather, stones, inventions, maths); and

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  reading (fairy tales, legends, silly stories, libraries).

Books (and extracts from them) are well‐chosen within the themes, and have been published over the years, although all citations are to USA editions and some would be hard to get. Collections like Pellowski’s The Story Vine (1984) appear and reappear, and good resources support specific themes (like westerns, dinosaurs, fairs, magic, sport). Sound recordings (such as John Williams’s Star Wars soundrack for Outer Space, Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries for Monsters) help things along. A USA emphasis comes through in the bibliographical detail and culturally in things like Thanksgiving, but not enough to get in the way of international use. As always for books like this, practitioners need to ask whether they need to buy the book (rather than read it), and whether they can put together storytelling and activity sessions for themselves. The craft side is in any case limited and you would need to look elsewhere. Practical hints start things off, and a very thorough index ends them. Working in the USA, this book would be good: elsewhere, check it first.