Knights and ladies, giants and dragons, tournaments, battles, quests and crusades are commonplace in stories for children. This book examines how late Victorians and Edwardians retold medieval narratives of chivalry--epics, romances, sagas, legends and ballads. Stories of Beowulf, Arthur, Gawain, St. George, Roland, Robin Hood and many more thrilled and instructed children, and encouraged adult reading. Lavish volumes and schoolbooks of the era featured illustrated texts, many by major artists. Children's books, an essential part of Edwardian publishing, were disseminated throughout the English-speaking world. Many are being reprinted today. This book examines related contexts of Medievalism expressed in painting, architecture, music and public celebrations, and the works of major authors, including Sir Walter Scott, Tennyson, Longfellow and William Morris. The book explores national identity expressed through literature, ideals of honor and valor in the years before World War I, and how childhood reading influenced 20th-century writers as diverse as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Siegfried Sassoon, David Jones, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming and John Le Carre.

“Here is a worthy successor to Ted Hughes’Poetry in the Making, the book that enabled me to gain the confidence to begin to find my own voice as a story teller.Children Writing Storiesconfirms that we all have a story to tell if we are enabled to develop enough self-belief. So much of our natural creativity is smothered during our school years. Teachers and children feel hemmed in by the strictures of a curriculum which simply does not allow room for creativity to breathe. Unlock the chains, let the light in, and this is the kind of writing that will flow, this is the kind of intellectual and emotional growing that can transform young lives.†Michael Morpurgo, Children’s Laureate 2003-2005 “What a splendid book! Michael Armstrong paysattention - thirty years of it - to the stories thatchildren write. We get two for one: the children’sown delightful and intriguing work - I want torush off and write some Wally (age 5) stories ofmy own - and Michael Armstrong’s intenseinterpretations. †Allan Ahlberg "This is real learning at its best, teaching byexample, through painstaking scrutiny of the artof young writers. Absorbing, moving,enlightening, inspiring." Morag Styles, University of Cambridge InChildren Writing Stories, Michael Armstrong reveals the creative force of children's narrative imagination and shows how this develops through childhood. He provides a new and powerful understanding of the significance of narrative for children’s intellectual growth and for learning and teaching. The book explores a series of real stories written by children between the ages of five and fifteen, and traces the growth of literary consciousness from the dawn of written narrative in the kindergarten, through the early years of schooling and on into adolescence. Each chapter opens with a story or stories, which the author then goes on to examine in detail, so that the book may be seen as both a select anthology of children’s stories and as a critical account of children’s narrative practice. This original and provocative book will appeal to teachers, parents, students of education and readers with an interest in literacy, children's writing or narrative theory.

Fox Eades shows how storytelling is a crucial element of children's education that can enrich the school curriculum and encourage social and thinking skills. She discusses the different kinds of story that are useful in the classroom, and explores the impact of individual and group dynamics on the telling and reception of these stories.

"In the third edition of this landmark test, Louise Porter draws on current, evidence-based research to explore prominent theories about young children's behaviour. With her customary clarity and ever-accessible style, Porter provides practical strategies for caregivers and teachers that are designed to : promote children's skill development, foster children's willingness to cooperate with others; and safeguard children's emotional needs." -- Back cover.

Herein you will find 9 Illustrated stories from “Golden Lands” compiled by May Wentworth. But why “Golden Lands”? Well, an introductory poem tells us why – There are orange groves and lime trees green That glint in the sunlight’s glowing sheen, There are deserts yellow with priceless sand, All these you will find in the Golden Land. Well, how else would you describe the lands of Fairydom? In the Preface of this exquisite book, Wentworth addresses all children everywhere – “In the pleasant Christmas-time I greet the children everywhere.To some I shall not be a stranger, for we have met before, not face to face, but in the pages of the last years little book. In the sunny days of childhood, a year is so long a time, that when the summer and winter have passed it seems like an age gone by; yet as again I bring my Christmas offering, I hope to be remembered and welcomed as the friend who loves the children well. They are the true critics, generous and fearless. For their warm hearts and keen appreciation, I write these stories of the Golden Clime. May the joy and blessedness of the holy Christmas rest upon them, and follow them through all the sunshine and rain of the coming year.” The stories in this volume are: The Little Lace-Maker Golden Snow Gracia And Catrina The Dancing Sunbeam The Young Gold-Seeker The Wishing Cap Crimson Tuft Snowdrop And Rosebud Lazarus And Bummer ============= TAGS: Folklore, fairy, tales, myths, legends, children’s stories, bedtime stories, Little Lace-Maker, Golden Snow, Gracia And Catrina, Dancing Sunbeam, Young Gold-Seeker, Wishing Cap, Crimson Tuft, Snowdrop And Rosebud, Lazarus And Bummer, orange groves, lime trees, green, glint of sunlight, glowing sheen, deserts, yellow sand, Golden Lands