Raising Voices: Creating Youth Storytelling Groups and Troupes
A unique and reliable blueprint for beginning and sustaining a successful group or troupe of storytellers from grades 4 to 12. (A group is defined as three or more youths "who gather to tell stories," whereas a troupe is defined as three or more individuals "who travel as storytelling performers.") Even though the authors work with young people in the school setting, their organizational ideas and applications are equally suitable for community groups. Sima and Cordi cover everything from the preparation for the first meeting of the group through the teaching and then honing of skills to the actual performances that may start in classrooms in the local school and could grow to community (and even national) events. The book includes reproducible forms that will save a lot of work and lists of valuable resources. Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss's Children Tell Stories (Richard C. Owen, 1990) and Stories inMy Pocket (Fulcrum, 1996) are important for storytelling collections for youngsters, but Raising Voices is the complete, and essential, handbook for this special group of storytellers.--Judy Sokoll, Florida Storytelling Association, NaplesCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.