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Re: Where Have All the Folktales Gone?
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From: Carole DeRubeis <cderubeis_at_mf.lib.wi.us>
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:22:12 -0500
I'm with Beth and many of you! The best stories, and the ones that hold the kids' interest so much that you can hear a pin drop (and see the mouths fall open), are the folktales. I was an elementary librarian for 25 years.
Kids come to school with very little folktale background, so all the tales we think are old, are new again. The youngest kids need the good old basics, like Paul Galdone. My older grade kids loved books like Jane Yolen's Greyling, Cooper's Selkie Girl, Gerstein's The Seal Mother, The Emporer and the Kite, The Rough Faced Girl, the Boy Who Lived with the Seals, The Crane Maiden, Little Oh, The Rainbabies, and lots of other books with a sense of wonder attached to them - all not necessarily "legitimate" folktales. The illustrations of course are a huge part of the attraction. I had a version of the Frog Prince and Iron Henry that kids just loved. Ernst's Gingerbread Girl, Osborne's Kate and the Beanstalk, and other retellings are also well received. Yummy is also great!
My advice, if there is a publishing drought, is hold on to your wonderful 398.2's!!
Foktales the basis of all literature and will never get old - recurring themes world wide, cultural similarities, etc.
It is unfortunate, as Ms. Yolen states, that publishers are publishing to the B/N market and not for schools/libraries. Support those smaller publishers who do publish quality, and ask yourself what it is you want to accomplish over your 6 years of library time with the kids. For me, part of that was to give them a background in quality, enduring literature --folktales were a good choice for part of that equation. The popular lit will sell itself (e.g., wimpy kid, junie b., HP, even Percy Jackson leads to mythology, etc.) Get to the good stuff!! Which reminds me of Yolen's Wings....
Carole DeRubeis
To unsubscribe click here: https://lists.wisc.edu/u?id248052.bc2884b2b70cf6a2b85163adcb3663f8 n=T lМbc-net o–56041 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to
Received on Fri 19 Mar 2010 03:22:12 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:22:12 -0500
I'm with Beth and many of you! The best stories, and the ones that hold the kids' interest so much that you can hear a pin drop (and see the mouths fall open), are the folktales. I was an elementary librarian for 25 years.
Kids come to school with very little folktale background, so all the tales we think are old, are new again. The youngest kids need the good old basics, like Paul Galdone. My older grade kids loved books like Jane Yolen's Greyling, Cooper's Selkie Girl, Gerstein's The Seal Mother, The Emporer and the Kite, The Rough Faced Girl, the Boy Who Lived with the Seals, The Crane Maiden, Little Oh, The Rainbabies, and lots of other books with a sense of wonder attached to them - all not necessarily "legitimate" folktales. The illustrations of course are a huge part of the attraction. I had a version of the Frog Prince and Iron Henry that kids just loved. Ernst's Gingerbread Girl, Osborne's Kate and the Beanstalk, and other retellings are also well received. Yummy is also great!
My advice, if there is a publishing drought, is hold on to your wonderful 398.2's!!
Foktales the basis of all literature and will never get old - recurring themes world wide, cultural similarities, etc.
It is unfortunate, as Ms. Yolen states, that publishers are publishing to the B/N market and not for schools/libraries. Support those smaller publishers who do publish quality, and ask yourself what it is you want to accomplish over your 6 years of library time with the kids. For me, part of that was to give them a background in quality, enduring literature --folktales were a good choice for part of that equation. The popular lit will sell itself (e.g., wimpy kid, junie b., HP, even Percy Jackson leads to mythology, etc.) Get to the good stuff!! Which reminds me of Yolen's Wings....
Carole DeRubeis
To unsubscribe click here: https://lists.wisc.edu/u?id248052.bc2884b2b70cf6a2b85163adcb3663f8 n=T lМbc-net o–56041 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to
Received on Fri 19 Mar 2010 03:22:12 PM CDT
