This page contains both links to online resources as well as titles of resources available in print. We would like to add more links to this site. If you find stories on the web that you think would be of interest to storytellers please email the URL to the Guild.

Note: The links will open in a new browser window.

Why are Stories Important? top

• Storytelling FAQ
• Aaron Shepard's Storytelling Page
• Handbook for Storytellers
• Newmarket Storytree: A group of storytellers from Newmarket discuss why they think stories should be told. Some reasons given include: to learn about people, to pass on history, and to explain why things are the way they are.
• Storyteller and Japanese Sword Master: A storyteller challenges a Japanese sword Master to a dual. The story demonstrates the power of a storytelling to transport and individual. Storyscape, London, England.
• Why We Tell Stories: A traditonal story. When praying miracle God will be satisfied with nothing more than a story offered because God made man because he loved stories. The story is retold by Wolf Logan. The site also includes many stories.
• How Storytelling Can Keep Your Organization on Track: Gives suggestion on how to inspire uninvolved-co-workers to cooperatively work together. From the Storywork Institute.
• Storytelling Made Easy: Wayne Charles Parker discusses why a father should tell stories to his children. Mr. Parker is the father of five active children ranging in age from 10 to 21. He is a consultant and trainer dealing in work-life balance and other career focused issues.

Why tell stories in my classroom? top

• Why Tell Stories: A keynote address by Brain "Fox" Ellis from Storytelling Magazine Jan 1997 The target audience are teachers. Also includes any other articles about storytelling in the archives
• HELP! I'm Not a Storyteller - and I Don't Have Time to Learn! The Turner Learning site has a short article for teachers who think they can not do storytelling with their class. Includes suggestions for involving students.
• Storytelling! A set of 9 lesson plans for the teacher who wants help her students to become storytellers. Suggestions for starting a festival. Includes a Bibliography of picture books to use as sources for stories.

How do I get started? top

• Storytelling FAQ
• Aaron Shepard's Storytelling Page
• Story Arts, a site by teller Heather Forest
• Handbook for Storytellers
• Storytelling Manual: This full text manual was developed by the Tampa/Hillsbourgh, Florida library system for their annual storytelling Festival. The Manual includes 42 Reasons for Teaching Storytelling and How to Teach Storytelling, and other information which will interest people interested in teaching storytelling or putting on a festival of their own.
• How To Tell Stories: Janice Perry and Nick Franchini give a few suggestions for improving storytelling. Janice runs 'voice-works' courses with MTC and Emerson College, England

Reference Books top

• Tales As Tools: The Power of Story in the Classroom by National Storytelling Association
• The Storyteller's Start-up Book by Margaret Read McDonald
• Telling Your Own Stories by Donald Davis
• The Storyteller's Sourcebook by Margaret Read McDonald
• The Storyteller's Guide by William Mooney
• The World of Storytelling by Anne Pellowski
• The Storytelling Store in Jonesboro

Storytelling Organizations top

• International Storytelling Center
• Illinois Storytelling Inc.
• National Storytelling Network

Other Resources on the Web top

• Storytelling Magazine
• Google Directory--Storytelling
• Google Directory--Storytelling Festivals

Stories by Type top

Fairytales

• The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales by Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob W. Grimm
• The Cinderella Project
• Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts
• Folklore, Myth and Legend (entire books online)

How and Why Stories

• How and Why Stories by Martha Hamilton
• Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale by Verna Aardema
• Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun by Geri Keams

Creation Stories

• In the Beginning: Creation Stories from around the World by Martha Hamilton

Trickster Stories

• Trickster Tales from Around the World by Barbara Schutz-Gruber
• Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa by Gerald McDermott
• Tio Conejo (Uncle Rabbit) and Other Latin American Trickster Tales by Olga Loya

Stories by Region top

U.S. and Canada/Native American

• How the Stars Fell into the Sky by Jerrie Oughton
• Keepers of the Animals by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac
• Keepers of the Earth by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac
• Tales and Legends: Zica' Hot'a & Butterfly Dancer, from the Mohawk people, have collected a group of tales, legends, and lore's, as told by various nations. The stories were submitted by natives.
• Native American Legends: United Cherokee Ani-Yun-Wiya Nation presents 497 Native American Legends. The legends are grouped by the region where the tales were originally told. The tribe who told the story is also given.
• Native Dreams: White Wolf built this site to help others who are interested in Native Americans learn more about them and their way of life.
• Mountain Lion: "That is the story--that is why the Mountain-lion is so long and lean, but he is no bigger thief than OLD-man, nor does he tell any more lies. Ho!"
• How dogs came to the Indians: An Ojibwa story(Single Story) Site is mainly about sled racing and Samoyed dogs.

U.S. and Canada/Euro-American

• Paul Bunyan and Other Tall Tales by Jane B. Mason by Virginia Hamilton
• American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne

U.S. and Canada/African-American

• Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales by Julius Lester
• African Folktales: Traditional Stories of the Black World by Roger D. Abrahams

Mexico, the Caribbean, Central, and South America

• The Magic Orange Tree by Diane Wolkstein
• Magic Moments by Olga Loya
• The Emerald Lizard by Pleasant DeSpain
• Mayan Folktales: These stories were told to Fernando Peñalosa by don Pedro Miguel Say, a famous Q'anjob'al storyteller from San Miguel Acátan, Huehuetenango, Guatemala, who now lives in Los Angeles, California, in the Koreatown area. Each month new folktales will be reprinted on the FolkArt & Craft Exchange. Permission to reproduce these stories not for profit is hereby granted, provided all copies contain the following notice: "From Tales and Legends of the Q'anjob'al Maya, published by Yax Te' Press, copyright 1995."

Africa

• The Spider Weaver by Margaret Musgrove
• Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales by Nelson Mandela
• Africa Resources: Folktales, Biography, Poetry, Nonfiction A bibliography of Sources from Internet School Library Media Center
• Two Liberian Folktales: Jeboo and Jeboo and POCKET TALES: "JEBOO AND JEBOO" retold by Peter Kohler is a writer and researcher based in Portland, Oregon

Europe

• Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Germany by Virginia Haviland
• One Hundred Favorite Folktales by Stith Thompson
• Collection of Russian Folktales

Middle East

• The Persian Cinderella by Shirley Climo
• Mesopotamian Myths by Henrietta McCall
• Jasmine and Coconuts: South Indian Tales by Cathy Spagnoli and Samanna Paramasivam
  This book should be the model of all storytelling books. Not only does it give a history of South India, it gives glimpses of South Indian telling. There are many stories grouped by the value they are illustrating. The book includes an extensive bibliography and two indexes, one is a Thematic Index. The stories are written so that they can be told without editing.
• Folktales of Israel by Dov Noy

Asia

• Asian Tales and Tellers by Cathy Spagnoli
• Why Snails Have Shells by Carolyn Han and Jay Han
• Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Japan by Virginia Haviland
• Folk Stories of the Hmong: Peoples of Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam Norma J. Livo and Dia Cha
• Tales of Times Now Past: Sixty-Two Stories from a Medieval Japanese Collection Marian Ury.

Multicultural Anthologies top

• Ready-to-Tell-Tales by David Holt and Bill Mooney
• More Ready-to-Tell Tales by David Holt, et al
• The Golden Hoard by Geraldine McCaughrean
• Wonder Tales from Around the World by Heather Forest
• Wisdom Tales from around the World by Heather Forest
• Favorite Folktales from Around the World by Jane Yolen
• Best Loved Folktales of the World by Joanna Cole
• Once Upon a Midlife by Allan B. Chinen
• Keeping the Traditions by Phyllis Jean Perry
• Thirty-Three Multicultural Tales to Tell by Pleasant DeSpain
• Eleven Turtle Tales by Pleasant DeSpain
• Through the Grapevine by Martha Hamilton
• Noodlehead Stories by Martha Hamilton
• The Cinderella Project
• Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts
• Folklore, Myth and Legend (entire books online)
• Pocket Tales: Myths & Legends à la Carte: Peter Kohlerhas compiled a group of full text stories from around the world that probes the deep roots of human culture in this series of wry essays unearthing universal pathos and abiding wisdom in folktales, myths and legends from all parts of the world.
• Woman's Wit by Howard Pyle
• Additional full text stories by Howard Pyle are also available: The Enchanted Island, The stool of Fortune, Ill Luck and the Fiddler, A Piece of Good Luck, Good Gifts, and a Fool's Folly, Where to Lay the Blame, Empty Bottles, The Good of a few Words, Fruits of Happiness
• Short Short Story of the Month: Storyteller Harlynne Geisler's New story each month.
• Collections of Stories and Tales: links from storynet.org
• Talmasca: Stories, Mythology, and Legend collected by Wolf Logan of Talamasca