Story Behind The Book
Originally, folktales were stories created by ordinary people to be passed on orally from one generation to the next. Over time, with the advent of printing and later the Internet, oral tradition has rapidly been replaced by our ability to collect and store the in- formation electronically (e.g., blogs, Web sites, digital media like CDs) or in books, including scrapbooks, workbooks and journals. The difference between researching and recording accurate family histories and writing folktales is that the folk teller (the writer) recounting folktales can focus upon his or her own memories. These rather than genealogy are the stuff of folktales.
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Reviews
<p>“I found the idea of people writing their<br /> own family folk tales intriguing. Once I<br /> started to the read the book, I could see all<br /> sorts of uses for it. The workbook is laid out<br /> in a very simple, easy to follow and easy to<br /> understand manner, and gives the reader<br /> the confidence needed to write. The<br /> suggestions for getting started, using people,<br /> places or things, is just a super idea. I can see<br /> this bringing families together and helping<br /> anyone interesting in writing, getting a good<br /> start. If I had young children, I would<br /> definitely start them on a regular routine of<br /> writing, using this book as a guideline.<br /> The exercises are imaginative, and get<br /> you down to work right away. A lot of<br /> thought has gone into the exercises and the<br /> whole process of writing. The author<br /> cautions against over-thinking and reminds<br /> you of what a folktale is. She even touches<br /> on the possibility of family members seeing<br /> ii<br /> things differently, and how to handle that<br /> eventuality. I can see many people adopting<br /> this as a relaxation technique and I love the<br /> idea of combining it with scrap booking.<br /> What a great way to revitalize what<br /> we have lost, our oral family history!”<br /> Nancy Reid, Big Blend Magazine<br /> (www.bigblendmagazine.com)</p>