What prompts children to tell stories? What does the word story mean to
a child at two or five years of age? The Folkstories of Children,
first published in 1981, features nearly five hundred stories that were
volunteered by fifty children between the ages of two and ten and
transcribed word for word. The stories are organized chronologically by
the age of the teller, revealing the progression of verbal competence
and the gradual emergence of staging and plot organization. Many stories
told by two-year-olds, for example, have only beginnings with no middle
or end; the narrative is held together by rhyme or alliteration. After
the age of three or four, the same children tell stories that feature a
central character and a narrative arc. The stories also exhibit each
child's growing awareness and management of his or her environment and
life concerns. Some children see their stories as dialogues between
teller and audience, others as monologues expressing concerns about fate
and the forces of good and evil.
Brian Sutton-Smith discusses the possible origins of the stories
themselves: folktales, parent and teacher reading, media, required
writing of stories in school, dreams, and play. The notes to each
chapter draw on this context as well as folktale analysis and child
development theory to consider why and how the stories take their
particular forms. The Folkstories of Children provides valuable
evidence and insight into the ways children actively and inventively
engage language as they grow.
