Ideally, we choose those tales that speak to us with emotional honesty, and we promote and tell them as honestly as possible. We tell African tales to Latino children and American Indian tales to Jewish children and Celtic legends, Appalachian tall tales, and Japanese ghost stories to children whose ethnicity we will never know, nor should it concern us. The public library has an oral storytelling tradition, and that tradition demands the sharing of the best we have to offer, including the tales from many cultures that are available now in better, more critically examined versions than ever before. We require more from traditional tales today. The criteria we use to evaluate them is more complex, more demanding than in the past, and well it should be.
Traditional literature is classified as non-fiction.
We want to know where the tales come from, where the reteller got them, what inspiration the illustrator drew on to create the visual images that accompany them. In the tradition of the library professionals who have gone before us, we tell stories to keep the art of library storytelling alive. As a profession we are sensitive to the diversity of our communities, and we demand a level of authenticity in the cultural materials we offer to the children we serve. The folktales we select for our shelves, the stories we choose to tell, should come from an informed source. If that source is an artist from the tale's originating culture, that may be a plus, but it is not a requirement.