Happily Ever After: Sharing Folk Literature With Elementary and Middle School Students
Folk literature is an important component in today's curriculum, not just for its literary merits but for its ability to expose youngsters to a variety of cultures and a diversity of beliefs and lifestyles. This collaborative effort from a group of professors, storytellers, editors, school-media specialists, and authors/folklorists brings together a complete overview of the genre. The book begins with a good guide to the subgenres within the folk-literature category. Explanations, literary criticisms, and examples are given for folktales, fables, mythology, legends, and tall tales in six detailed chapters. Next, stories from a wide range of cultures are explored. An entire section is devoted to "Cinderella" and its numerous variants. Throughout the book is a wealth of classroom applications, ideas, and suggestions for interpretation outlined in the form of lesson plans, writing exercises, art projects, role playing/dramatization, and the integration of social- and global-studies units. It concludes with discussions of the validity of studying and evaluating transformed fairy- and folktales such as the fractured and twisted tale, and of exploring the timeliness and timelessness of folk literature through an evaluation of "Rumpelstiltskin" from the original Brothers Grimm to Diane Stanley's rendition. This well-written, broad approach to folk literature will be suited to not just educators and classroom teachers, but to children's literature devotees as well.–Rita Soltan, Oakland University, Rochester, MICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.