Storytelling is powerful. Its history stretches back to the earliest days of humanity, and it’s an art form intertwined with the passing down of wisdom and understanding. Our love and need for stories is still alive today, although it may be more clearly seen in our habit of getting drawn into episode after episode of a well-crafted TV show, instead of gathering around a fire to listen to lore from an elder.
‘The Storyteller’s Handbook’ by Elise Hurst
A nontraditional picture book, “The Storyteller’s Handbook” contains no words. Instead, each page is filled with Hurst’s delightfully imaginative illustrations. Her drawings appear somehow old-fashioned, as if they wouldn’t be out of place in an antique book of fairy tales. The foreword by Neil Gaiman, author of “American Gods,” suggests that each of these images can lead readers to a magical storytelling experience.The drawings certainly are touched with magic and may put readers in mind of “The Chronicles of Narnia” or “Alice in Wonderland.” One page shows a fox peering into a mysterious forest full of gnarled trees, some growing into spiral staircases that lead to an unknown world above. In another picture, assorted animals have lined up, seemingly waiting for packages at a post office booth manned by a small rabbit. Another page shows giant snails sailing over an ocean of towering waves.
Each picture can be used as the jumping-off point for storytelling. The book will provide parents, grandparents, and caretakers with a lovely opportunity to share their own creativity with a young listener or a chance to jointly imagine what stories each image holds. The intricate details of each drawing mean that each one can be revisited over and over.
‘To Tell You the Truth’ by Beth Vrabel
Trixy’s grandma was a gifted storyteller, and she seems to have inherited that talent as well. Her fourth grade English class assignment to write a true story about her life should be easy, but her grandma died six months ago, which has left Trixy trying to make sense of her grief and a head full of her grandmother’s stories, which no one else seems to believe. As she copies down and shares her grandmother’s stories, they are continually met with doubt as to their truth and accuracy. While some of the stories do seem hard to believe—could her grandma truly have run into Liberace at a small town bakery?—Trixy’s faith in her grandma’s honesty is unwavering. Eventually, she hatches a plan to prove the stories true. The narrative of “To Tell You the Truth” switches between charming stories of her grandmother’s upbringing and Trixy’s present-day struggles.One easily forgivable flaw of this book is that Trixy is wiser and more articulate than seems believable of a 10-year-old. However, her insights and way of speaking, full of charming analogies, add to what makes this book a worthwhile read. The way in which Trixy sees other characters in terms of the stories that she believes have shaped them can teach a valuable lesson about empathy. Another strength of the story is its depiction of Trixy’s father as an anchor of strength and love while his wife and daughter struggle with their grief.
‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak
In “The Book Thief,” stories are a lifeline amid the harshness of Nazi Germany. The book depicts the suffering and tragedy of World War II and the Holocaust while telling the story of young, orphaned Liesel Meminger as she is taken in by the Hubermann family. The narrator, Death personified, describes episodes from Liesel’s life, adding his own omniscient comments. Death especially focuses on the moments in which books touch and change the girl’s life.Learning to read from her foster father, who helps her to decipher a stolen copy of “The Grave Digger’s Handbook,” which marks her younger brother’s death, becomes a nighttime antidote to her nightmares about her brother. Liesel gets older and adjusts to her life with her kind new father and her abrasive new mother, and an unexpected visitor joins their household. Stories are one of the few gifts that Max Vandenburg, the Jewish person who takes refuge in the Hubermanns’ basement, has left to give to Liesel in exchange for her kindness. Stories—as Liesel reads aloud from her treasured books—are also the only things that cut through the dark terror within the air raid shelters as the war progresses.
This work of historical fiction is beautifully and tenderly told by its peculiar narrator. It is recommended for readers aged 12 and older. (608 pages, Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2007).
