Good Stories for Holidays | Page 3

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GOOD STORIES FOR GREAT HOLIDAYS
ARRANGED FOR STORY-TELLING AND READING ALOUD
AND FOR THE CHILDREN'S OWN READING
BY FRANCES JENKINS OLCOTT
Index according to reading level is appended.

TO THE STORY-TELLER
This volume, though intended also for the children's own reading and
for reading aloud, is especially planned for story-telling. The latter is a
delightful way of arousing a gladsome holiday spirit, and of showing
the inner meanings of different holidays. As stories used for this
purpose are scattered through many volumes, and as they are not
always in the concrete form required for story-telling, I have
endeavored to bring together myths, legends, tales, and historical
stories suitable to holiday occasions.
There are here collected one hundred and twenty stories for seventeen
holidays--stories grave, gay, humorous, or fanciful; also some that are
spiritual in feeling, and others that give the delicious thrill of horror so
craved by boys and girls at Halloween time. The range of selection is
wide, and touches all sides of wholesome boy and girl nature, and the
tales have the power to arouse an appropriate holiday spirit.
As far as possible the stories are presented in their original form. When,
however, they are too long for inclusion, or too loose in structure for

story-telling purposes, they are adapted.
Adapted stories are of two sorts. Condensed: in which case a piece of
literature is shortened, scarcely any changes being made in the original
language. Rewritten: here the plot, imagery, language, and style of the
original are retained as far as possible, while the whole is moulded into
form suitable for story-telling. Some few stories are built up on a slight
framework of original matter.
Thus it may be seen that the tales in this volume have not been reduced
to the necessarily limited vocabulary and uniform style of one editor,
but that they are varied in treatment and language, and are the products
of many minds.
A glance at the table of contents will show that not only have selections
been made from modern authors and from the folklore of different
races, but that some quaint old literary sources have been drawn on.
Among the men and books contributing to these pages are the Gesta
Romanorum, Il Libro d'Oro, Xenophon, Ovid, Lucian, the Venerable
Bede, William of Malmesbury. John of Hildesheim, William Caxton,
and the more modern Washington Irving, Hugh Miller, Charles
Dickens, and Henry Cabot Lodge; also those immortals, Hans
Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Horace E. Scudder, and others.
The stories are arranged to meet the needs of story-telling in the graded
schools. Reading- lists, showing where to find additional material for
story-telling and collateral reading, are added. Grades in which the
recommended stories are useful are indicated.
The number of selections in the volume, as well as the references to
other books, is limited by the amount and character of available
material. For instance, there is little to be found for Saint Valentine's
Day, while there is an overwhelming abundance of fine stories for the
Christmas season. Stories like Dickens's ``Christmas Carol,'' Ouida's
``Dog of Flanders,'' and Hawthorne's tales, which are too long for
inclusion and would lose their literary beauty if condensed, are referred
to in the lists. Volumes containing these stories may be procured at the
public library.
A subject index is appended. This indicates the ethical, historical, and
other subject-matter of interest to the teacher, thus making the volume
serviceable for other occasions besides holidays.
In learning her tale the story-teller is advised not to commit it to

memory. Such a method is apt to produce a wooden or glib manner of
presentation. It is better for her to read the story over and over again
until its plot, imagery, style, and vocabulary become her own, and then
to retell it, as Miss Bryant says, ``simply, vitally, joyously.''

CONTENTS
NEW YEAR'S DAY (January 1)
THE FAIRY'S NEW YEAR GIFT: Emilie Poulsson, In the Child's
World
THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL: Hans Christian Andersen, Stories and
Tales THE TWELVE MONTHS: Alexander Chodsvko, Slav Fairy
Tales
THE MAIL-COACH PASSENGERS: Hans Christian Andersen, Fairy
Tales
LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY (February 10)
HE RESCUES THE BIRDS: Noah Brooks, Abraham Lincoln
LINCOLN AND THE LITTLE