Three-Minute Tales

by Margaret Read MacDonald

Overview

Recognized as Notable book for Global Society Anyone who teaches, lead, or speaks in public has had the experience of needing to fill short amounts of time in order to hold the audience's attention. The challenge is familiar to Margaret Read MacDonald, who for thirty-five years told stories to preschoolers every week.Here are more than eighty simple, short, pithy tales for many occasions: holidays, museum tours, history or nature walks, public speaking, media appearances, school visits, curriculum boosters. These traditional tales come from China, west Africa, Mexico, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, Syria, Cuba, the Ukraine, India, eastern Europe, and the Jewish, native American, and African-American traditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874837285
Publisher:	August House Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/14/2005
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.18(h) x 0.67(d)
Lexile:	590L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 Months to 17 Years

About the Author

Margaret Read MacDonald Bio: Margaret Read MacDonald is a professional storyteller, award winning author and highly respected consultant who travels the world telling stories and conducting workshops for educators. Her most popular workshop “Playing with Stories” has been offered in over 70 countries. She has been invited to storytelling and literary festivals in Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand and Singapore. In addition, Dr. MacDonald teaches storytelling to classroom teachers for the Lesley University Creative Education through the Arts program. For years, she also taught storytelling as an Adjunct Professor with the University of Washington Information School. Dr. MacDonald is the author of over 60 books on folklore and storytelling topics, including many award winning folktale picture books. She has been telling stories since 1964 in her work as a children’s librarian, and she holds a Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University along with an M.Ed.EC. (Educational Communications Masters) from the University of Hawaii and a Master’s of Library Science (MLS) from the University of Washington. She is well known for her ability to create texts that delight the ear and are easy for teachers to share. Teaching with Story contains 20 of these useful stories that can be used by teachers with their students.

Table of Contents

	About This Book	7
	About the Tale Notes	8
	Why Three-Minute Tales?	9
	Suggestions for the Beginning Teller	11
Chapter 1	Tales to Tell on a Walk	13
	The Sun Sisters. China	14
	The Butterfly Robe. China	16
	Planting Forget-me-nots. Iran	18
Chapter 2	Tales to Tell on a Museum Tour	21
	Siddhartha Encounters Suffering. India	23
	Siddhartha Under the Bo Tree. India	26
	The Naga Mucalinda Shelters the Buddha. India	28
	A Lover of Dragons. China	29
	Ganesha Around the World. India	30
Chapter 3	Tales for the Youngest Listeners	33
	Coyote's Rain Song. Navajo	34
	Pancake Party. Siberia	36
	Hiring the Fox as Shepherd. Norway	38
	The Frog from Osaka and the Frog from Kyoto. Japan	41
Chapter 4	Participation Tales	43
	The Teeny Tiny Man. Canada	44
	Two Goats on a Bridge. Russia and Eastern Europe	46
	That's Good! No, That's Bad! U.S.	49
	Did You Feed My Cow? U.S.	51
	The Tailor's Jacket. Jewish	52
	Herman the Worm (Song and Chant). American Camplore	55
	Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree. American Camplore	59
	Lazy John. U.S. Appalachian Folksong	60
	Roll Over. American Folksong	61
	The Courting Song. American Folksong	62
	Story Finger Plays for the Very Young. U.S. and Canada	64
	Tommy Thumbs Up
	Way Up High in the Apple Tree
	Five Little Jack-o-lanterns
	Miss Polly Had a Dolly
Chapter 6	Short Folktales for Any Age	67
	The Young Reader. India	68
	The Maiden in Green. China	70
	The Yu Player from the South. China	72
	How Two Water Snakes Moved House. China	74
	The Story Not Told, the Song Not Sung. India	75
Chapter 7	Riddle Tales	77
	Thief and Master-Thief. India	78
	The Hare and the Lion King. Burma	80
	Pig and Bear in Big Business. Czechoslovakia	82
	The Parrot and the Parson. Europe	84
	The Clever Old Woman of Carcassonne. France	86
	The Fool at the Country Store. Southern Indiana	88
Chapter 8	Humorous Tales	91
	Teaching the Horse to Speak. Turkey	92
	Talking Turkeys. Syria	93
	The Dripping Nose. Southern Indiana	95
	The Learned Scholar. Jewish	96
	Moving the Stone. Turkey	98
	The Man and the Lion Travel Together. Aesop	99
	The Best Part of All. U.S.	100
	The Tumblebug and the Eagle. Aesop	101
	The Well-Read Frog. U.S.	104
Chapter 9	Scary Tales	107
	"Look at My Teeth!" Cuba	108
	Squeak My Leg. Russia	111
	The Ghostly Sneeze. France	114
	Painting Ghosts. China	116
	Potato in My Hand. U.S.	117
Chapter 10	Stories to Think About	119
	Tossing Starfish. U.S.	120
	A Storytelling Parable. Contemporary, based on Jewish folklore	121
	Rock vs. Plant. Contemporary fable	123
	Quarreling Leads to Losses. China	124
	The Argument Sticks. Iroquois	125
	In a Time Made Out of Twilight. Original, Lenore Jackson	126
	Plan of Attack. China	127
	The Old Man Who Moved Mountains. China	129
	One Word for Happiness. China	131
	Medicine to Revive the Dead. Thai	133
	Keeping a Promise. China	135
	Bad Luck or Good Luck? China	136
	Opening Your Ears. U.S.	138
	The Miser. Aesop	139
	The Wisdom of the Ants. China	140
Chapter 11	Very Tiny Tales! Under 30 seconds!	141
	The Man Who Ate Fish. Iroquois	142
	The Red Brick Temple. Thailand	143
	The Thai Man in the Shade. Thailand	144
	Holding Up the Sky. China	145
	The Bilingual Mouse. Canada	146
	The Bilingual Cat. Mexican-American	147
Chapter 12	Endless Tales and Tales to End the Telling	149
	Mother Morey. U.S.	150
	Rats of Nagasaki. Japan	151
	The Tinkling Bell. Japan	153
	The Shepherd and His Sheep. Czechoslovakia	155
	The Golden Key. German, Grimm	157
	Bibliography: More Short Tales for Telling	159

Editorial Reviews

Margaret Read MacDonald gathers riddles, scary stories, folk songs and more in Three Minute Tales: Stories from Around the World to Tell or Read When Time Is Short. A tale from China, "A Lover of Dragons," features a man who professes affection for the creatures (until he meets one) and the Mexican-American story "The Bilingual Cat" stars a feline that catches his dinner by picking up a second language ("Bow wow!"). (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

MacDonald has compiled more than 70 short, easy-to-learn tales that are ideal for beginning a program or filling in short lags that may occur during a performance. Some selections take as little as 30 seconds to tell. They come mainly from Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and are subdivided by the occasions for which they are best suited: tales to tell on a walk, scary tales, humorous tales, tales for the very young, participatory tales. A few are even provided in fingerplay form. A useful addition to professional and parenting collections.-Marlyn K. Beebe, City of Long Beach Public Library, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal