More Canadian Stories to Tell to Children

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

A companion volume to the popular Storytellers’ Rendezvous, Storytellers’ Encore, also published by the Canadian Library Association, is a compilation of field-tested, timed Canadian read-alouds. Long or short (one item is timed at five seconds!), this collection of easy-to-listen-to pieces is listed under the headings Inuit Stories; North American Indian Legends; Folk Tales; Anecdotes and Tall Tales; Modern Stories; and Poetry. For further accessibility, all are indexed not only under author and title, but by subject as well.

The pieces included are credited to the author, where known, or the collector, in the case of traditional items. Some few are clever re-workings of the oldest and best-loved of tales, like Max Ferguson’s “Has Anybody Seen My Umbrella?”, a new version of the Cinderella story which is a funny and convincing argument for adult literacy programming. This collection, like its sister volume, will enhance Canadiana collections in all children’s libraries.