Storyteller provides a wealth of activities supporting oral story telling, reading and writing stories. The teacher's notes by best-selling author Pie Corbett outlines ideas for drama, writing, art, dance, music research and discussion for each story from the anthology Dragonory and other stories for 7-9 year olds. This teacher resource is complimented by a children's anthology, Dragonory and other stories for 7 to 9 year olds which includes an audio CD for the children to listen to the stories being read aloud. There are two other books in the series: Storyteller: The Gingerbread Man and other stories for 4 to 7 year olds and Storyteller: The Boy and the tiger and other stories for 9 to 11 year olds.

Review: Pie Corbett is sort of a hero of mine and so when I see a series with his name on it I expect great things and this book and guide do not disappoint. It provides: history of the story, activities for reading the story, techniques for telling it and re-telling it out loud, as well as activities that encourage the children to write their own versions with the added bonus of being able to watch the stories being read on CD Rom. The ideas can also be easily used with other stories and books. One small downfall is that the guide with the CD-Rom (£20) and the anthology with the CD (£5.99) are sold separately. If you want to read the stories to the class yourself, or have the children read sections of the stories within the classroom, or breakdown and examine the text more closely, you really do need to have both the book and the guide.

2009-05-07