A Piece of the Wind and Other Stories to Tell

by Ruthilde Kronberg, Pat McKissack

A collection of stories intended to be told, drawn from a variety of traditions including European, African, and contemporary American. Includes tips on such aspects of storytelling as voice patterns, body expression, and audience participation.

Genres: Fiction

221 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1990

Reviews

[Oznasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was the last night of the course. Before we got started someone presented me with this book. I took a glance. It looked good. I wasn’t going to give it a full endorsement without reading it, so I said to the group, ‘If this book lives up to the headings on the contents page it is everything a beginning storyteller needs.’ Headings are: Stories for Easy Telling, Stories That Involve the Audience, Stories to Act Out and Stories for All Occasions. I passed the book around the group and suggested they glance at it while their fellow students were telling their stories. One of the students had not done his homework. He had not learned a story. He said nothing and when it was his turn to tell he told a wonderful story – the best he had done. I complemented him on the story and asked where he had found it.

‘Oh, in that book you passed around.’ He had read the first story in the easy stories section only once and retold it to the class! That proved to me that the book really did do what the section headings said.

I read the book as soon as I could and added two of the stories to my repertoire. That was years ago and I am still telling those stories.

Do I need to say more?

A Piece of the Wind and other stories to tell by Ruthilde Kronberg & Patricia C McKissack, Harper & Row San Francisco

This review first appeared in the John Shield storytelling site, © copyright John Shield 2002