What an amazing resource! This book is an excellent effective resource for anyone who works with schools, camps, libraries, and just wants to share it on from family book shelves. It is a must for storytellers who intend to tell scary stories to children under fourteen. This anthology of scary stories clearly demonstrates the rich selection of plots and stories that are common in America today. Many of the more traditional stories are provided with slightly different twists. This produces fun to read (or hear) collections for the new storyteller while still holding the interest of those readers (or listeners) who have heard these tales. There are several original stories that are found nowhere else – plus a large selection of the old standbys. Altogether there are twenty stories placed in five categories with four stories per group: Just Deserts, Ghostly Guardians, Dark Humor, Urban Legends and Fearless Females. You are bound to fit a tale to fit any need!

The stories included are not horror or suspense. Blood and gore are not privileged any place in this collection of tales. Instead, the concentration is good scary storytelling. The short length of the book and each story make it an easy take-along for sleepovers and camping trips.

Here you will find Margaret Read Macdonald’s version of the Dauntless Girl; in addition to a fresh twist of the graveyard dare story from Great Briton. The Gingerbread Boy, a tale collected by Mary Hamilton, and a Cinderella story told with a visit to a friendly neighborhood witch who is right out of Hansel and Gretel. Kevin Cordi’s “Aaron Kelly’s Bones,” serves as a great reminder of what to do when the dead come back to haunt the living. What better demonstration of the fact that the bones of old relationships get in the way of the current ones than a skeleton sitting in a rocking chair in your living room? Each story comes with notes and additional resources that could be use in developing a storyteller’s own version of the tale. Included with the collection are hints of
books, websites, and festivals to check out. I found the book very readable.

The stories were so fresh that I could not put the book down; I had to read it in one evening. At 144 pages this book will become one of the old standbys of any classroom for middle school, especially 5th and 6th grade. This is an important oral narrative resource for any teacher wanting to include storytelling in the curriculum this fall. Without reservation, buy it, you and the kids you work with deserve a good fright!

The August House of Scary Stories
ISBN 978-0-87483-915-9
Price : $15.95

To Purchase this book try Amazon -
The August House Book of Scary Stories: Spooky Tales for Telling Out Loud

or try the publisher’s webpage: August House

If you have found this resource review helpful – maybe you would
consider writing a review of a storytelling resource; book, magazine,
CD, DVD or storyteller for publication on the Art of Storytelling with
Children Blog? If you have a resource that you would like reviewed, you
should know that any of my previous guests are welcome to write a 500+ word review of any resource.

Press Play to hear Janice M. Del Negro who was interviewed by Eric Wolf on revising feminist folk-tales: naming the women. on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Dr. Janice M. Del Negro writes
When Eric and I talked about a topic for this interview, he asked me what was I passionate about? I am passionate about naming the women.

That being said, I was reluctant to use the word “feminist” in the title of this podcast. The word “feminist” is a trigger word that elicits, in many people, a strong emotional response. Since I agree with Mark Twain – “the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between the lightning and the lightning-bug”- the choice of the word “feminist” was problematic, because nearly everyone has a distinct personal definition of that particular word. Eric bypassed that concern, however: “people will search ‘feminist’ online,” he said to the library school professor. So here we are, “Revisioning the Feminist Folktale,” and I am not sure that two people on the planet have the same definition of what “feminist” means, never mind folktale, or oral tradition. So I’ll stick to passion.

I am passionate about retelling folktales. I am passionate about excavating old tales, tales that have already survived for centuries, for emotional truths that resonate with contemporary listeners. There is no definitive version of a folktale, no “original”; we can point to the earliest remembered, written, or preserved version, but not to an “original.” Folktales change over time in order to survive, and re-telling folktales for present-day listeners is a contemporary offshoot of what is popularly understood as the oral tradition.

Tales come to us differently today than in the past. A handful of contemporary American storytellers can say they heard folktales from family or friends, tales that were handed down orally, from mouth to ear, but many of us who retell folktales first meet the tales on the page. Sometimes the tales work just as we find them; sometimes they resonate oddly, indicating currents beneath the surface. Those currents offer an opportunity to retell from where the teller stands now, instead of from where the story stood then.

My stand includes my gender. I am a woman. I am fascinated by the women in folktales, not just the women characters, but the women storytellers. Many of the tales we have were collected by men operating within the social mores of their times. The stories these good men chose to collect and the manner in which they collected them were filters through which the stories travelled, affecting the tale’s content and presentation. I look at a folktale so collected and I want to know: what isn’t there? What would the stories be like if the women were telling them to each other in the kitchen, while the collector was making notes on the polite version in the parlor? Those are the stories I want to tell, and since no one collected them in quite that way, I make my own. Filtered through my own experiences, I try and make an old tale new.

Stories may be static on the physical or virtual page, but for as long as the storyteller is telling, the story has blood and breath. Every retelling of a folktale, imbued with the individual blood and breath of the storyteller, is unique. The storytelling community recognizes this in a practical and concrete way: there are many popular conference and festival programs in which several tellers elect to retell the same folktale, just to show what is possible.

I am enormously interested in the fact that many female storytellers choose to retell traditional tales from points of view not always represented in collected or anthologized versions of folktales. Milbre Burch, Elizabeth Ellis, Susan Klein, Barbara Schutz-Gruber, Megan Wells, my own students (and too many others to name even with unlimited bandwidth) approach folktales through their own artistic processes. I cannot speak to the specifics of anyone’s process but my own, and even my process is malleable; the process changes with every story, because every story speaks differently to every teller.

JMD

Janice M. Del Negro, PhD.
Author, Educator, Storyteller

Janice M. Del Negro is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, where she teaches Storytelling, Children’s and Young Adult Literature, and Foundations in Library and Information Science. Professor Del Negro did her doctoral work at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Del Negro has been a featured speaker, storyteller, and workshop leader at the National Storytelling Festival, the Allerton Conference (”Stories: From Fireplace to Cyberspace”), the Illinois Library Association, the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, the Illinois Storytelling Festival, the Fox Valley Music and Storytelling Festival, the Champaign Public Library Children’s Literature Festival, and many other celebratory events. She has spoken and conducted workshops on various aspects of children’s literature and publishing, storytelling, and reading motivation for teachers, librarians, parents, and other educators in a variety of settings, including the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, the State Library of Illinois, the North Carolina State Library, and the University of San Diego.
Del Negro’s first picture book, Lucy Dove (1998) won the Anne Izard Storytelling Award; her second picture book, Willa and the Wind (2005) was an ALA Notable Book, and an Honor Book for the Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature from the Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Her recent collection of supernatural tales for young adults, Passion and Poison, published by Marshall Cavendish in 2007, received starred reviews in both Horn Book and School Library Journal.
Del Negro has performed and lectured extensively in libraries, schools, and community centers throughout the United States. Her specialties include retelling traditional folktales, reading motivation through literature and storytelling, and transformation stories, with a gentle emphasis on women and ghosts. Her first recording, Journeywomen and Ghostly Passages, was released in July, 1991; her most recent recordings, Romantic Wonder: Tales of Love and Magic, and Shadow’s Sisters: Shapeshifters, Wraiths, and Spirited Women, were released in April, 1999. She is currently working on a new recording entitled Fortune’s Daughters: Folktales and Ghost Tales, to be released in 2008. Del Negro has reviewed for Booklist Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, and School Library Journal, and is currently reviewing for Booklist.
She has served on both the Newbery, Caldecott, and Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award committees. In 2004-2005 Del Negro served as chair of the 2005 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award committee. and subsequently served as chair of the 2007 Caldecott Award Committee.
Del Negro was formerly the director of the Center for Children’s Books, a special collection of children’s books located at the University of Illinois. Before taking her position as Center director, she was the editor of the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, a monthly review journal of books for youth. Del Negro went to the University of Illinois from the State Library of North Carolina, where she was a consultant for children’s services and public libraries throughout the state. Prior to this she worked for fourteen years as a children’s librarian for the Chicago Public Library, including five years as Assistant Director of Children’s Services.

Eric James Wolf, professional storyteller and host of the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Show, is available for print, radio and television interviews to defend the use of the scary Halloween stories in the oral tradition with children.

Scary Halloween stories and ghost stories for children have taken the place of ritual trials of adulthood for teenagers, according to Mr. Wolf. They also serve as a means for adults to warn children away from dangerous places or behavior. Ghost stories and scary Halloween stories in the oral tradition can be age appropriate and satisfying for families. Currently on his the Art of Storytelling shows website he has five interviews available for easy download about the art of telling scary Halloween stories.

Eric Wolf does not condone or support horror or the graphic use of violence. “It is possible, however, by carefully working within the confines of scary Halloween stories and ghost stories for children, to leave our audience psychologically stronger and more emotionally capable of dealing with their fears or the shock of real world disasters,” Mr. Wolf says.

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Storyteller Eric James Wolf has performed nationally at such venues as the American Museum of Natural History; Bank Street School for Children; Barnard College; Blue Theater – Toronto, Canada; Columbia University; The Fund for the City of New York; Kings Island Amusement Park; New York City Clearwater Festival; New Jersey Liberty Science Center; and The International Performing Artists for Youth.

He is the host and producer of the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf, a one hour interview format show. Mr. Wolf has M.S. in Education from Lesley University.

Eric Wolf’s Websitehttp://www.ericwolf.org

The Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Show
http://www.artofstorytellingshow.com

A list of five episodes on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf with storytellers speaking on how to use scary storytelling with kids.
http://www.artofstorytellingshow.com/category/scary-storytelling/

To schedule an interview, call:
(937) 767-8696

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Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #063 Donna Washington
	for $2.23 The Anatomy of a Scary Story

Donna Washington Writes…
Why do kids love ghost stories? I asked my eleven year old son this question because I have discovered that my academic and empirical observations about these sorts of subjects often bears little resemblance to the actual answer. He was good enough to inform me that he loves the fact that the characters are frightened and they have no idea what is about to happen next. He didn’t say word one about wanting to be scared. In other words, it’s the idea of the scary thing being someplace far away from you so that you can have a good scare in a safe place and then walk away and be all right. Just for the record, that’s what I thought. In other words, I agree with the expert.

http://www.donnawashington.com

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #065 Lopaka Kapanui
	for $2.23 Memoirs of being a Honolulu Ghost Tour Guide.

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Play to hear this interview that was recorded as a conference call on September 24th at 8 PM ET – 2008. Thomas Freeze spike about the advantages of sharing ghost stories with children.

Thomas Freese writes…
I enjoyied being on Eric’s “Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf Podcast” on September 23, 8PM Eastern time. I’ve been a professional storyteller and author of ghost story books for over a decade in addition to my work as an art therapist and licensed professional counselor. Our topic was “Why tell children scary ghost stories?” I have over a dozen storytelling programs that I perform for schools, libraries, festivals, churches and private parties. And several of those themed programs are ghost stories. I’ve collected both true ghost stories as well as authoring original fiction mysteries. Kids love storytelling and kids really love ghost stories!

I was fascinated with ghost stories since I was a middle school student. In fact, one of my favorite books, Strangely Enough, which I bought at a Scholastic Book Fair, is still in print and still available for kids at school. After reading it and questioning my Mom about real experiences with ghosts she related a tale of an encounter at her Aunt’s farm when out horse riding. I’ve been hooked on ghostly mysteries ever since.

Fast forward to my life in Kentucky where I was a volunteer singer at the historic 200 plus year Shaker village called Pleasant Hill, located near Harrodsburg in Mercer County. During my ten years singing I heard numerous stories of experiences with the Shaker spirits and I decided to take a stand, rescue the fact or folklore that would be lost oral accounts if no one else researched and recorded them. I interviewed over 60 employees and guests starting in 1998 and later (2005) published those first-hand tales in my Shaker Ghost Stories from Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. I found children of all ages fascinated with the stories of spirits who seemed to act very much in character with the once-living Shakers. Folks heard singing, shouting, stomping in the 1820 Meeting House. They saw Shaker-dressed figures on the old village pike.

As I performed my ghost stories program I included some true tales along with the fanciful entertaining fictional tales. I found kids no less interested in the true tales despite some of those seeming a bit less high-impact than fiction stories. I created a number of guitar songs to accompany my tales of witches, ghosts and other creatures. In live performances of mixed ages I noticed children mesmerized by true ghost stories.

In planning discussions with some teachers or librarians I was intrigued to see that some basically requested “the scarier the better” whereas others wanted assurances at least concerning the younger ages, say up to Kindergarten or first grade. I think a number of scary tales can be done successfully and without undue “trauma” at younger ages but the teller’s environment makes a difference. I sing a song to normalize the fear of ghostly stories at the beginning of my program. What I find fascinating also is that whatever the age of the audience, younger children through adult, one can find individuals sitting side by side of the same age where one is wide eyed with participatory “fear” and the other smirks and says, “That’s not scary enough!”

Please join me for this Podcast as I consider the topic with several professional hats, ghost story author, storyteller and professional counselor and therapist. My credentials include BA Psychology, MA Expressive Therapies, LPCC (Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, ATR-BC (Art Therapist Board Certified). In addition, I have worked as a Psychic Counselor and I can tell you that some things kids see are not “just their imagination!” Check out my books, first one mentioned above, and also Fog Swirler and 11 Other Ghost Stories and just released Strange and Wonderful Things: a Collection of Ghost Stories with Special Appearances by Witches and Other Bizarre Creatures.

Check out my site for more information: http://www.thomaslfreese.com/

Dale Jarvis in the Flesh.

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #064 Dale Gilbert Jarvis
	for $2.23 How to collect true scary stories for Halloween.

Dale Jarvis Writes
Near to where I live is a small lake with the delightfully ghoulish name of Deadman’s Pond. According to local legend, the pond is bottomless, and I’m sure many people know of similar stories for lakes near where they live. These lakes and ponds offer us tantalizing doorways to another realm. Peering into the reflective surface of a still body of water and wondering what lies beneath provides us with a link to the unexplained. Perhaps this is why they fascinate us. It is not so much that we think they actually are bottomless, but that part of us wishes that they might be.

So too with ghost stories. I’ve told ghost stories to literally thousands of people over the past 13 years, and they continue to be the stories most often requested when I do work with school kids. Most of the stories I tell are true, or at least were thought to be true by the people I learned them from. I love collecting true scary stories that are tied to specific places, and sharing them with people who love that delicious shiver that runs up one’s spine when they are well told.

“A teller of spine tingling tales that are so convincing, that even if you don’t believe in ghosts… you soon will!”
‑Wayne Rostad, On the Road Again

Bio of storyteller Dale Gilbert Jarvis:
Dale Gilbert Jarvis is a storyteller, professional folklorist, and writer living and working in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Dale tells ghost stories, faerie stories, legends and traditional tales from Newfoundland, Ireland, the United Kingdom and beyond. Dale is the founder of the St. John’s Storytelling Circle, president of the annual St. John’s Storytelling Festival, and a member of the board of Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada.

As a storyteller, Dale has performed locally and at international festivals, but is perhaps less well known than his alter ego, the distinguished Reverend Thomas Wyckham Jarvis, Esquire. Since 1997, The Reverend has been the host and guide of the St. John’s Haunted Hike, a walking ghost tour through the haunted streets of St. John’s. Under his supervision, locals and tourists have been introduced to the vengeful lovers, murdered soldiers, and mysterious fires which await those brave enough to explore the secrets that lie in wait in St. John’s darkest corners. Mixing history, humour, true scary stories and traditional storytelling, Dale has been winning over audiences and throwing in the odd scare here and there, and has been covered by a wide variety of local, national and international media. Over the past years, the Hike has grown from a small idea to a fixture in the St. John’s tourism industry.

Dale is the author of two books of local ghost stories, “Haunted Shores: True Ghost Stories of Newfoundland and Labrador” and “Wonderful Strange: Ghosts, Fairies and Fabulous Beasts of Newfoundland and Labrador” both published by Flanker Press, and a collection of world ghost stories for young adult readers, “The Golden Leg and Other Ghostly Campfire Tales” also published by Flanker.

You can read more about Dale on his various websites at
http://www.hauntedhike.com
http://www.dalejarvis.ca
http://storytellingstjohns.blogspot.com/

Tired of the tin sound? Purchase a HQ Mp3 File of Interview #012 Rick Carson
	for $2.23 Working with Fear and Children.

Written by Rick Carson….
Rick has been a professional storyteller for almost 25 years. He specializes in mountain and tall tales, ghost and humorous stories for all ages. Rick is experienced in telling at schools, libraries, organizational meetings and festivals and in giving workshops and residencies. He’s a member of the National Storytelling Network, the International Order of EARS, the Ohio Order for the Preservation of Storytelling and a charter member of Miami Valley Storytellers.

It has been my experience that the scary story is one of the most popular genres. Children begin liking scary stories from about the age of 8 or 10, although the exact age varies with each individual child. Some children never like them. Scary stories seem to hold a fascination for adults as well as children. This is true for a variety of reasons and such stories have been written and told for a variety of reasons as well.

The scary story is like a roller coaster ride. It is an easy way to get a thrill with very little actual danger. We love to raise our adrenaline and hear our heart pounding in our ears and feel the blood rushing through our veins and still know that in just a short time we will return to safety.

We also love to question what is possible and what is real. Does a part of us live on after death? Are there really such things as ghosts, vampires and werewolves? How come some people are able to see ghosts and others aren’t? Will I ever see a ghost? Do I want to see a ghost?!

Scary stories are told to entertain. They also hold wisdom and warnings concerning the evil that exists in our world. Some are morality tales where good triumphs over evil. Others caution us to always keep a check on our baser natures so we are not lured out of the light and into darkness.

When telling scary stories, I believe the teller always needs to be aware of the audience, more so than in any other type of story. Whenever possible, a number of criteria need to be in place to make sure the audience gets as much as possible out of the experience. An atmosphere of a campfire, with darkness lurking on the periphery, will add to the mood. When telling to children, the teller should be aware of the eyes of the listeners, as the eyes convey the amount of fear that the mind and heart are feeling. Keeping in mind the roller coaster analogy, it is important to remember that children need to know that at the end of the story, they are going to be safe again. Whenever possible, scary stories should be told in a family setting where the kids can feel safe next to Mom and Dad. Since parents know their children best, they can always remove the children if the stories are getting too scary.

Roller coasters are not for everyone. Neither are scary stories. But when the mood is right, the teller in top form, and the audience receptive, everyone is in for the ride of their lives!

Learn more about Rick Carson on the Miami Valley Storytellers Website