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Let's use this topic to build a bibliography of resources to help with both Biblical storytelling and storytelling workshops.


Try to include a brief description of the item. If a book is no longer in print, include the ISBN number to help people who want to request it interlibrary loan.

 

If you list a website, please add a description so that others can located the resource elsewhere if the link goes dead.

Thanks!
Amy Smile


Storytelling Workshop Exchange Volunteer

 


Editor's Note:

 

Amy has also posted a storytelling manual and bibliography here.

Last edited by Wormy the Helpful Worm
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The "classic" text on Biblical storytelling:

Boomershine, Thomas. Story Journey: An Invitation to the Gospel as Storytelling. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1988. Purchase from the Network of Biblical Storytellers bookstore at http://nbsint.org/store

Tom teaches you a variety of ways to learn and retell a Bible story using New Testament stories (mostly from the Gospel of Mark).

Read Anne Camps review of this book further down in this thread of post here.

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Exchange Volunteer updated link

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Discussion moved from another location:

Joanne Ryder posted April 21, 2004
I recently purchased a book called Clip and Tell Bible Stories by Lois Keffer, Group Publishing, 1995, ISBN 155945699X (OUT OF PRINT)

I saw that there was a second book titled Clip and Tell Some More Bible Stories by the same author, 1998 (ASIN: 0764420453). (OUT OF PRINT)
I have not been able to find that book anywhere. It is apparently out of print. We are getting ready to do a rotation on Paul's Conversion and this second book has a clip and tell story about that. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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PURCHASING OUT OF PRINT BOOKS
Lois Petersen replied April 22, 2004
Have you checked e-bay. When I have had to find something in the past, I have been fortunate on occasion to find it there. Good luck.

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Jan Snell posted April 23, 2004
If you go to https://www.amazon.com, type in the title you may be able to find a used copy. You can check if it has what you want before you buy it. Barnes and Noble's web site also will refer you to sources for out of print items.

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Storytelling resource postings consolidated from other areas:


Jan Snell wrote:
A fabulous resource that I just got is a book called The Art of Storytelling by John Walsh, Moody Press, ISBN 0-8024-3306-5.


It is a wonderful resource for working with all kinds of groups in your church, including the children.




Maureen Lefebvre wrote
Good storytelling resource - specifically for Sunday School. Storytelling, Kids and Christian Education by Arlene Flancher (ISBN 0-8066-6428-2 - Augsburg Press). A great book with many creative ideas and examples.

Last edited by Wormy the Helpful Worm
An out of print book that has been helpful to several people...Crazy Clothesline Characters

Check Amazon as they often have used copies for a decent price: 1 cent plus shipping. (As well as a new copy for $80 - $100!)


Publisher’s description:
Crazy Clothesline Characters by Carol Mader, Group Publishing, ISBN 0764421409

“You're already familiar with these Bible stories--The Creation, Noah's Ark, Nebudchadnezzar, Jonah, Jesus' Birth, The Prodigal Son, and 34 others. But now you have 40 new and fun ways to tell them to your children! You'll tell stories with cue cards, food, walks, flashlights, balloons, and other multi-sensory items to involve children in the story--and to help them remember it for a lifetime!”

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Cindy LB asked on August 31, 2002 about this book.

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Jan Snell posted August 31, 2002
I can't remember all of the stories, but it is a good balance of OT and NT. I have found it to be a great resource. It does have scripts, which are very creative and give good teaching/discussion options.
It is very easy to use.

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Angie posted September 02, 2002
We have this book and it is a fun set of lessons - but they are not all "scripts". They are a real variety. I would call them more interactive storytelling ideas than scripts. For example the first story is creation and the kids pull objects out of boxes for each day as the story is told. For Noah they each have a colored piece of paper and hold it up when they hear it mentioned in the story. For Tower of Babel it had us build a tower of index cards with words from the story written on them as they came up in the story. For the Thankful Leper there is a monolog for the teacher to present as the leper - complete with costume.

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Exchange Volunteer reformatted this post.
Last edited by CreativeCarol
We've been having a great time using Tandem Stories from Standard Publishing. The two I have are:

"24 Tandem Bible Storyscripts for Children's Ministry" by Steven James, Standard Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0784713200.
and
"24 Tandem Bible Hero Storyscripts for Children's Ministry" by Steven James, Standard Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0784713219.

My favorite has been the Bible heroes one. I really like the selection of Old Testament characters it uses including Abraham, Joshua, Deborah, Gideon, and Ruth. We used some of them during our VBS program and even the adults enjoyed them.

Moderator adds:
Tandam storytelling is where two characters tell the story, one is usually very straight laced, while the other is humorous, gets things mixed up, asks lots of questions because they don't understand or get the point. It's fast paced dialogue back and forth, remembering to pause anytime your audience breaks into laughter. Older children love to do these and younger children love to watch. They're also great to do during children's story time in church and we generally do them the last sunday of a rotation to share with the congregation. Adults enjoy these very much. Also note you can use these sripts with puppets as well.
Last edited by Luanne Payne
The Creative Storytelling Guide for Children's Ministry
Author: Steven James

Excellent book to run a storytelling workshop sessions, over several weeks, for your church.

Description
Would you like to tap into your imagination to make your stories soar? Are you looking for a way to grab and keep the attention of your students? Then this is the book for you. Inside you will find easy-to-use storytelling workshops that you can lead as well as scriptural reasons for telling stories in Christian education today. There are creative storytelling techniques and activities with examples and explanations that will give you practical ideas on applying Bible stories. Inside there are more than 139 storytelling tips, tricks, timesavers, and hints as well as 385 story starters to help you create and tell the stories from your life. Whether you're new to storytelling, or you've been telling stories for years, this book will help you tell God's story more creatively and effectively than you ever imagined you could.

ISBN: 078471374X
Trade Paperback
Number of Pages: 192
Publisher: Standard

Frederick Buechner's "Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who'sPeculiar Treasures Who" is considered by many to be one of the most insightful, poignant and humorous books about various heroes and villains in the Bible.

While the book was written for adults and preachers, his alternative take on the characters is refreshing, and should give the storyteller lots of performance cues and story fodder.

 

 

 

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The following post was moved here from a previous discussion...

 

 

Another site which offers manipulatives for telling a Bible story...

 

From Cathy Walz

 

A source for felt figures is www.bettylukens.com 

 

They have hundreds of felt figures, objects, backdrops, etc. A book comes with it that gives suggestions on which figures to use with many, many stories from OT and NT. Even if a particular story isn't listed, you can still go through and pick out something that works. I'm amazed at how much they have--they even have a blanket filled with unclean animals (from Peter's vision).

When we do storytelling, the "character" doesn't spend the whole time telling their story as a 40 minute story would be too long. The children also do some sort of activity or simple craft that relates to the lesson (making a banner or bracelet, etc). They get their more "creative" art in the art station.

Last edited by Rotation.org Moderator

(Originally Posted in the Rotation.org JUNE 2011 EMAIL NEWSLETTER)

This month’s great idea was contributed by Anne Camp, Shadyside Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, while working on the current Rotation.org Writing Team lesson set, “Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.”

The book Story Journey, an Invitation to the Gospel as Storytelling by Thomas E. Boomershine (Nashville:  Abingdon Press, 1988, 978-0687396627) has been untouched on my bookshelf for many years.  This spring when I finally finished reading it, I received a wonderful gift:  the challenge to learn by heart a fairly lengthy selection of scripture.

Don’t be put off if you think you don’t enjoy memory work.  The process of preparing to learn the story is deeply revealing in and of itself – even if you don’t follow all the way through with committing the passage to memory.

To prepare, read the story out loud each time you do the following tasks:

  • identify the structure of the story by dividing the text into episodes of two to four sentences
  • listen for variations in tempo
  • listen for verbal threads – repeated words or phrases
  • name and picture the structure by picking out the key words and images.  This involves writing out the passage using different color codes for each episode and leaving out articles and transitive verbs.)

Having now read the story out loud at least four times and having created an outline and having identified key words, you are already well on your way to being able to tell the story – in rich detail – in your own words. This is where I usually stop.  But I was surprised how much I really enjoyed continuing to focus on the words until I was able to tell it verbatim.  I used some of my favorite multi-tasking times (taking a shower, doing the laundry, swimming my laps) to complete the task.

I heartily recommend Boomershine, who also founded the Network of Biblical Storytellers.  Story Journey contains ten stories from the life of Christ to which he has applied his method in much greater detail than I have been able to share here.  I’m only sorry I didn’t read him years ago.

Last edited by Luanne Payne

I found a site with delightful retellings of many Bible stories - with humor and artwork. I'm sure they can be used in a variety of ways.

By Paul Dallgas-Frey the site is http://www.biblestoryguy.com/bible.html Scan down to see the available bible story titles.

Last edited by Luanne Payne

Storypath_logo

Storypath is a terrific resource from Union Presbyterian Seminary. It came about as a class-developed resource connecting children's literature to scripture and biblical themes. You can read about it here.

It is searchable by Lectionary as well as by Bible passage and theme.

There are lots of ways you can use literature in your programming, whether as a way to retell a Bible story, to creatively reinterpret a story, or to inspire art or other activities after reading the picturebook. Even older kids enjoy artwork in picturebooks as a way to visualize stories and activities. The site also includes novels that can be recommended for at-home reading. Search their site for inspiration!

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