New Releases by Dianne De Las Casas

Written by a popular performer and well-known storyteller, this entertaining compendium reveals the secrets for suspenseful storytelling and features 25 spooky stories for audiences of all ages. Experienced performer and artist Dianne de Las Casas coaches students and adults in the art of telling scary stories. The book details de Las Casas''s process for becoming a master storyteller and offers ways you can establish trust with audiences, provides tips for telling spooky tales, and shares methods for managing audience participation. Each of the 25 included stories is accompanied by one of various identifying icons, with selections ranging from suspenseful to comical to thrilling—foregoing those stories that contain gore or the grotesque. A brief section explains the benefits of scary stories, such as providing a safe way to exercise and develop our fear system, strengthening our coping skills by desensitizing us to unpleasant things, and building caution for actual frightening situations. Each tale is illustrated with a "scare-o-meter," an icon that rates how frightening the story is and identifies the most appropriate audiences for its telling.

An adaptation of the traditional tale of Cinderella with animals rather than humans as characters.

Children love seeing ordinary objects such as paper and string transformed into extraordinary things. This book provides a collection of fun make-and-take tales that enable educators and librarians to take storytelling to a higher level. Can something as simple as a handkerchief, rubber band, paper plate, or piece of rope be used to captivate children during a storytelling? An expansion of the original, best-selling Handmade Tales book, author and storyteller Dianne de Las Casas provides 25 more clever handmade tales appropriate for pre-kindergarten to third grade. By following her clear instructions on incorporating inexpensive props comprised of everyday items into these fun make-and-take stories, educators and librarians can exponentially expand the appeal of their storytime efforts. Including different types of make-and-take stories like string stories, draw and tell, paper tales, and stories that use other simple props, the handmade tales in this book are ideal for preschool and elementary school teachers and librarians of all experience levels. Storytellers, scout leaders, camp counselors, and others who work with groups of young children will also find these make-and-take stories and instructions invaluable.

This merry take on The House That Jack Built features a mouse, elf, reindeer, and much more. Young readers can get in on the act thanks to sound prompts such as squeak, stomp, and jingle.

When the Little Read Hen, who loves to read and write, asks Dog, Cat, and Pig to help her create a story, they decline, so she researches, outlines, drafts, edits, and proofs the story by herself.

When one after another family member goes the store for baking soda and never returns, the pet squirrel decides to investigate in this retelling of a traditional Appalachian tale. Includes a recipe for soda biscuits.

Dinosaurs parade down the streets of New Orleans during the Mardi Gras carnival. Includes glossary and related craft activity.

Celebrate the unique diversity and vibrancy of the Philippines through an in-depth exploration of the stories, traditions, songs, crafts, and recipes of the many different regions of the country. Tales from the 7,000 Isles: Filipino Folk Stories offers insights into the people and culture of the Philippines through dozens of tales representing the nation''s various islands, regions, and cultural-ethnic groups. Designed to provide educators with material with which to enhance curriculum and lesson plans, the stories open a gateway to a rich and unique cultural mix. The tales presented here are divided into animal stories, how and why stories, tales of enchantment, trickster tales, and scary stories. In them readers can discern not only the native Filipino culture, but the influences of the many peoples who have moved through and settled in the islands, most notably Malay, Chinese, and Spanish, but also Arab, Indian, and American. A brief history of the country, its people, and their cultural traditions is included, as are crafts, children''s games, recipes, and color photos. Notes about the stories, a bibliography, and a glossary complete the volume.

This book makes the perfect addition to teachers'' and librarians'' story time selections, containing 25 educational and entertaining tales from around the world as well as proven storytelling techniques. Storytelling predates reading. Storytelling is a vibrant tradition in nearly every culture on earth. And of course, storytelling serves as a perfect medium for educating young children and early readers. Specifically intended for elementary school and public librarians, teachers, storytellers, and camp counselors, Tell Along Tales!: Playing with Participation Stories contains 25 adapted tales from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Ireland, Korea, Norway, Spain, and West Africa that are appropriate for kindergarten through sixth grade students. These stories are linked to standards and are full of fun audience participation, making them perfect for the library, classroom, camp, or home. The book will illuminate the best methods for telling a tale, describe various types of audience participation and how to encourage it, identify elements in a story that provide opportunity for participation, explain when to include audience participation, and share the author''s proven audience management techniques.

"A joy to read out loud . . . A library dragon devouring all my favorite books is the scariest thing I can imagine!" —Eric Kimmel, author of the Caldecott Honor Book Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins Story time in the library has just come to an end when Max spies something amazing on one of the bookcases. It''s a large, speckled egg that with a loud CRACK breaks to reveal a small dragon. But the dragon doesn''t stay small for very long because he has a real appetite for books. Max tells his mom, the librarian, and even a policeman, but will anyone believe him before the dragon gobbles up the library? Fresh and bright illustrations bring this story of library adventure to life. A list of Max''s "Book Care Tips" completes this fanciful tale for children, librarians, and anyone who has ever been enchanted by the wonders of the library. "This dragon tale has all the elements to make it a modern classic and a storytelling staple." —Stephanie Bange, storyteller, children''s librarian, and director, Charles and Renate Frydman Educational Resource Center, Wright State University "This clever story is sure to delight all lovers of dragons, books, and libraries. Repetition and refrain make it perfect for reading aloud at story time." —Gale Criswell, former children and teen services consultant, State Library of Louisiana

A scary Halloween version of "The House that Jack Built," featuring a witch, black cat, skeleton, and other spooky images.

Relates the native Central American tale of how the gift of chocolate came to be shared by the gods with humans.

This unique learning tool lets students read and listen to a popular folktale, analyze the structure through story mapping, and create a board game based on their analysis. Ever-popular, board games can be an ideal teaching tool. In Stories on Board!: Creating Board Games from Favorite Tales, award-winning storyteller Dianne de Las Casas shows how it''s done, allowing students to create their own board games with a unique method that integrates learning and fun. With Stories on Board!, students read and listen to popular folktales, analyze the structure of the story through story mapping, and then create a board game based on their analysis, engaging their aural, visual, and tactile skills. The lesson culminates in a Game Day in which the students play each other''s games. The technique is a great way to introduce a unit on folktales, covering language arts and social studies.

A mother rocks her child to sleep as they listen to the sounds bayou creatures make at night.

Ma Farmer craves sweet potato pie but needs help to harvest a homegrown sweet potato--in this version of the Russian folktale, The Giant Turnip. Includes recipe and directions to make sweet potato pie.

Collects twenty-five scary stories, rated on a scale of tame to spooky, with gesture, movement, prop, and voice suggestions to captivate an audience.

A folktale from New Orleans that explains why cockroaches and chickens are not the best of friends.

Targeted for elementary teachers, drama teachers, and teaching artists, Tangram Tales contains adapted tales from around the world appropriate for grades 2 through 6. Teachers can tell the stories in the classroom as part of a math unit, or have the students use the scripts provided here to perform the stories using tangrams. In the author''s tangram story theater process, students are given roles as storytellers, tangram artists, and chorus members to create grade-level story presentations. Other tangram methods, such as individual student tangram tales and student-created tangram tales, are shared as well. The ways in which tangram tales connect language arts and math is demonstrated. The book includes simple black-and-white spot illustrations for each story, showing the tangram figures that depict the story. A reproducible tangram pattern is provided. Grades 2-6

Beginning with wonderful tips and advice about the art and presentation of storytelling, this is a complete resource about how to build a storytelling career. Storytellers come to their careers centered on the stories they love and soon realize that in order to make a living at what they love, they must build a business. This in-depth book tells them just how and what to do in every detail, from choosing a sound system to building a website to using podcasts and setting up an office. Resource lists and tried and true ideas abound as the author shares her marketing and business success story throughout. Each chapter is a story in itself, beginning and ending with different traditional folktale openings and closings. There is even a chapter on how to plan for retirement.

De Las Casas has adapted 25 folktales from across Asia for whole classroom use, borrowing a Japanese method of storytelling through pictures. The book offers tips on rehearsing and detailed discussion and background of the Kamishibai processes, and it describes how to coordinate grade-level story presentations. Reproducible tales can be distributed to each member of the class to aide in creating illustrations. The stories in Kamishibai Story Theater will delight children in grades 2-6, enticing them to participate in their own story fest. De Las Casas has adapted 25 folktales from across Asia for whole classroom use, borrowing a Japanese method of storytelling through pictures. Kamishibai theater harkens back to itinerant storytellers (Kamishibai Men) who conveyed their tales by means of illustrated cards slid into slots in wooden stages built on the back of their bicycles. This book includes an introductory chapter describing in detail the methods to use in coaching students in the art of Kamishibai Story Theater. It offers tips on rehearsing, and detailed discussion and background of the Kamishibai processes, and it describes how to coordinate grade-level story presentations. Reproducible tales can be distributed to each member of the class to aide in creating illustrations. Spot illustrations for each tale give students an idea of the flavor of their drawings for that story. The stories in Kamishibai Story Theater will delight children in grades 2-6, enticing them to participate in their own story fest.