All About the Stories

storytelling

Easy-to-Read Wonder Tales series:
It’s Not About the Ball! (ISBN:978 1 77049 330 8)
It’s Not About the Apple! (ISBN: 978 0 88776 955 9)
It’s Not About the Hunter! (ISBN: 978 0 88776 948 1)
It’s Not About the Tiny Girl! (ISBN:978 1 77049 3292)
It’s Not About the Crumbs! (ISBN: 978 0 88776953 5)
It’s Not About the Rose! (ISBN: 978 0 88776 954 2)
It’s Not About the Pumpkin! (ISBN: 978 088776 9498)
It’s Not About the Diamonds! (ISBN:978 1770493285)
It’s Not About the Beanstalk! (ISBN:978 1770493278)
It’s Not About the Straw! (ISBN:978 1 77049 326 1)
by Veronika Martenova Charles
Tundra Books

This series hinges on a very simple idea and formula: there are many stories from different places that follow essentially the same arc, and deliver the same basic moral. Each of these books takes one of these much-told tales and introduces three variations from around the world. There is a very slight framework around it of a few children talking and sharing the stories, just to tie them together.

I love this for a few reasons. Stories, for one thing. Storytelling is one of the things I do, and I love passing on stories to kids, or convincing them to read and enjoy them on their own like this. It’s also a neat way of showing how similar people are around the world – and in fact, versions of fairy tales is a curriculum thing, too, so this does a nice job of that. And finally, well, our stories are cultural touchstones, and introducing these themes and tales to our kids enriches them and gives them the schema they need to understand other things. All this, in a nice little easy-to-read package. Sweet!

Also available in ebook formats.