SOURCES OF STORY MATERIAL FOR THE ROMANTIC PERIOD
BOLTON, SARAH K.: _Famous Leaders among Men_.
BOUTET DE MONVEL, L. M.: _The Story of Joan of Arc_.
BROOKS, ELBRIDGE STREETER: _Historic Girls_.
BUELL, AUGUSTUS C.: _John Paul Jones, Founder of the American Navy_.
BUXTON, ETHEL M. WILMOT: _A Book of Noble Women_; _Stories of Persian Heroes_.
CHAPIN, ANNA ALICE: _The Story of Parsival_.
CHURCH, ALFRED JAMES: _Stories from the Iliad_; _Stories from the Odyssey_.
CREIGHTON, LOUISE VON GLEHN: _Some Famous Women_.
GILBERT, ARIADNE: _More than Conquerors_.
GILCHRIST, BETH BRADFORD: _Life of Mary Lyon_.
GUERBER, HELÈNE A.: _Legends of the Middle Ages_.
LOCKHART, JOHN GIBSON: _Ancient Spanish Ballads_.
QUILLER-COUCH, SIR ARTHUR THOMAS: _The Roll Call of Honor_.
RICHARDS, LAURA E.: _Florence Nightingale, the Angel of the Crimea_.
SNEDEKER, CAROLINE D.: _The Coward of Thermopylæ_.
STERLING, MARY BLACKWELL: _The Story of Parzival_; _The Story of Sir Galahad_.
STRICKLAND, AGNES: _The Queens of England_; _The Queens of Scotland_.
Story-telling is a creative art, and therefore a knowledge of underlying principles is as indispensable to the narrator as to the sculptor or painter. Without this knowledge he cannot hope to adapt material to his needs, but must be limited in his choice to what is already in form to give to children; with it he can avail himself of many opportunities to bring to his charges treasures of which they could know nothing but for his ability to dig them from the profound tomes in which they are hidden, polish and clarify them, and put them in a setting within the understanding of the child. For this reason a course in story-writing is a part of the training of the professional story-teller, and while the mother or teacher cannot make such extensive preparation, she may to advantage master and apply a few cardinal principles of construction.
The beginning of the oral story should never be an introduction, because from the first word the child expects something to happen, and if nothing does happen his attention scatters and interest is lost. Therefore the narrator must bring his actors on the stage and get them to work at once; he must not let them stand around waiting while he gives a detailed description of their hair and eyes and of the clothes they wear, but must have them do something. It is often necessary to make some explanatory remarks in the beginning, but it should be done in such a way that the hearer has no time to wonder when the story is going to begin. For instance, if your tale is about a boy in Holland, do not delay bringing the boy in while you tell about the country. Let him enter at the beginning, and then, by a sentence here and a clause or phrase there, give the setting with the action. The story must bristle with human interest; for while the child knows nothing about the meaning of that term, he nevertheless demands that something happen, and if nothing does happen you lose his attention. The written story may depend for its charm upon character drawing and local color, but the oral story demands _plot_, and if this plot is badly hung together the story fails in its aim, for it does not make a deep impression.