Bringing the Story Home: The Complete Guide to Storytelling for Parents

By Lisa Lipkin

Book Overview

Lavishly endowed with over 100 original, hands-on activities for children aged three to ten, this book teaches parents to incorporate storytelling into household activities and to address real-life situations. In addition to folklore from our own and other cultures, it features a rich sampling of tales actually invented by children and their parents--stories that will inspire readers to invent their own. [I]t's refreshing to see how a parent can kindle a child's imagination through the magic of the oral tradition.--Stage Directions After reading this unpretentious, delightful romp of a book, no parent will be able to walk into a room and not imagine potential stories in every corner.--Steve Zeitlin, Director, City Lore

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393322602
• ISBN13: 9780393322606
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

makes storytelling easy and meaningful

This book is an easy, entertaining read and a reminder of the profound importance of family members TALKING to each other. Storytelling, and storymaking, allow kids and parents to express real feelings to one another and grapple with difficult issues all while PLAYING a game! In addition, she gives you lots of stories and story starters; this was lots of fun to read.I'm not a parent but I do work with kids. I'm pretty sure that if you try this book, you'll like it. I've already purchased two copies for friends of mine with children!

Creative fun for the whole family

I am a personal friend of the author Lisa Lipkin is not only a great story teller, she haswritten a wonderful book that shows us how we too can learn to spin a great yarn, and more importantly, why we should. Storytelling for Lisa is a mission to bring families closer together and at the same time fuel their creative imaginations. Now, whenever my children ask me to tell them a story I use some of Lisa's fun and easy suggestions to help them make up their own. For instance, when we are sitting around the dinner table I ask them to pretend they are a fork and ask them what it is like to be a fork. They love it. It really gets them thinking or as Lisa would say, "strenghthens their imaginative muscle".In addition, Bringing the Story Home is chock-full of anecdotal information, references from other sources as well as stories from her personal experiences performing in workshops across the country. I highly recommend this book to parents who want to strengthen their familial bond and inspire their children's creativity.

A Must Have

I bought this book while on vacation with my three young children. In the moments of tiredness or boredom, when my children usually start to fight with each other, I quickly tried some of the simple activities described in the book. To my amazement, the children loved every minute of it, turning what would have been exasperating times for all of us, into wonderful, giggle filled vacation memories. I needed no crayons, no gagdets, no batteries. We had blue sky, each other and our imaginations. This book is a wonderfully entertaining read, with exquisite excerpts from many sources, and tons of ideas on how to uncover our inner creativity through the age old craft of storytelling.