The importance of a definite time and place for the story hour,for a prompt beginning and for an ending before it becomes tedious,cannot be too strongly urged.The storyteller should "size up"the conditions and suit the story hour to them.If she is ******,natural and unaffected,and sufficiently resourceful to vary her program to suit the interests of the children,the story hour will be successful.
Various practical forms of co-operation have been suggested,notably in the visits of library storytellers to playgrounds wherever the public library is actively interested in storytelling,and such visits are desired by the playground.
The story hour season in most libraries ends in April,****** it possible in some libraries to release assistants once or twice a week to visit playgrounds.The benefit derived from such visits is mutually endorsed by playground and library assistants.
Conferences of groups of workers interested in storytelling,under the leadership of a professional storyteller,who also understands the practical conditions and limitations under which the playground and library assistants do their work have proved stimulating and suggestive in a number of places.Volunteer workers who have the ability to tell stories and who can so adapt themselves to their surroundings as to make their story hours effective,can do much for storytelling.This is especially true of men who have had actual experience of the life from which their stories are taken and can make these experiences of absorbing interest to their listeners.
In conclusion,the committee recommends that wherever practicable,storytelling in playgrounds be placed under a leadership corresponding to that now given to games and to folk dancing.That a clear distinction be preserved between storytelling and dramatics,as differentiated,though closely related,activities of the playground and the settlement.That the story hour be valued as a rest period;for its natural training in the power of concentration,and in that deeper power of contemplation of ideal forms in literature and in life.That storytelling in settlements be more widely developed as a feature of social work worthy of a careful plan and of sustained effort.
That storytelling in libraries be made more largely contributory to storytelling in other institutions by a thoughtful and discriminating study of story literature,and by effective means of placing such literature in the hands of those who desire to use it.
The committee also suggests that the subject of storytelling is worthy of the consideration of the universities,the colleges,and the high schools,of the country,to the end that students may appreciate and value the opportunities for service in a field of such possibilities as are presented to those who possess,and who have the power to communicate,their own love of literature to the boys and girls of their time.
READING CLUBS FOR OLDER BOYS AND GIRLS
Another method used successfully by a number of libraries to interest older boys and girls as they grow away from the story hour is that of the reading circle or reading club.Miss Caroline Hewins'contribution to the Child Conference at Clark University in 1909was an account of this work in the Hartford Public Library,of "book-talks at entirely informal meetings."A sketch of Miss Hewins appears on page 23.
The boys and girls who are growing up in libraries where story-telling is a part of the weekly routine,at thirteen or fourteen are beginning to feel a little too old to listen to fairy tales or King Arthur legends,and look towards the unexplored delights of the grown-up shelves.Many librarians are taking advantage of this desire for new and interesting books to form boys'and girls'clubs with definite objects.One whom Iknow after a training with large numbers of children in a city branch library,became librarian in a manufacturing town where there were no boys'clubs,and soon formed a Polar Club,for reading about Arctic exploration.She was fortunate in having an audience hall in the library building,and before the end of the winter the boys had engaged Fiala,the Antarctic explorer,to give a lecture,sold tickets and more than cleared expenses.
This,be it remembered,is in a town with no regular theatre or amusement hall,and the librarian is young,enthusiastic,and of attractive personality.The branch libraries in Cleveland have been successful in their clubs,and in back numbers of the Library Journal and Public Libraries,you will find records of organizations of young folk who meet out of library hours,under parliamentary rules,for more or less definite courses of reading.For the reason that the experiments are in print and easily accessible,I shall merely give you a record of my own book-talks at entirely informal meetings.
