Storytelling and Music
red = preschool,
purple = primary schools,
green = secondary schools & youth groups,
blue = adult & community sector
| Age Group | Country | Topics | Reference | |
| Throw your tooth on the roof In Beeler’s first book, children from familiar and remote countries on each continent explain what they do when they lose a tooth. The Tooth Fairy surfaces on several occasions; but for kids from a number of countries, she’s replaced by a mouse, a squirrel or another critter. In other traditions, parents fashion jewelry from baby teeth, children wrap a tooth in a piece of food and feed it to an animal or throw their teeth on the roof. |
4-8 | Culture | Story 1 | |
| The reappearance of Sam Webber Eleven-year-old Sam Webber was never very good at making friends his own age. In fact, he felt closest to his mother and father: “I always enjoyed my parents’ company more than anyone else’s.” So Sam is devastated when, without warning, his father abandons the family. Forced to move to a poorer neighborhood of Baltimore, Sam has to adjust to a strange school, a small, squalid apartment, and recurring bouts of nervous nausea and hyperventilation. Retreating to a world of comic books and G.I. Joe figures, Sam sinks into a deep depression. It is only when he strikes up an unlikely friendship with the school janitor, Greely, that Sam begins to creep out of his shell and connect with the world again. Surrounded by Greely, his mom, and his mom’s friends (the ever-jolly Junie and her curmudgeonly husband Ditch), Sam learns, in the year after his father’s disappearance, how to trust again–and become a stronger Sam Webber. |
10-16 | Self-esteem, identity | Story 2 | |
| The Tinder-box assembly book – Starting points, stories, poems and classroom activities The material in this book has been selected to help children find out about themselves, their relationships and their environment. |
5-12 | Culture | Story 3 | |
| The Telling of the World This book is a feast for the eye, mind, and soul. The 125 illustrations include drawings, paintings, and sculptures by modern Native American artists from different tribes, as well as important artifacts. An art piece does not illustrate a story, but it enhances the understanding of the story. In fact, the illustrations and the stories stand independently, yet blend imperceptibly. The 80 tales are from traditional and modern tellers of different tribes, and are arranged in life-cycle order: creation, adolescence, family, marriage, children and community, old age and elder wisdom, and death. |
4-8 | Culture | Story 4 | |
| Sammy! – The word that broke an empire Sammy! is the incredible story of Mahatma Gandhi, told by an ensemble of actors in a modern and exciting manner. Led by a lively debate between Mohandas, the man, and the irrepressible Mahatma in him, the play highlights Gandhi’s relationships and how he changed everyone he touched. |
12+ | India | Human Rights | Story 5 |
| Stories from Around the World This book provides a wide variety of photocopiable craft templates, each with simple instructions for children to follow. The templates enable children to make books and models based on traditional stories from countries around the world. |
5-9 | Crafts, Culture | Story 6 | |
| Under the Same Sky Joe Pederson wants one thing for his birthday — a big, expensive motorbike. His parents decide he needs a lesson on the value of money and tell him he will earn the money himself. Living on a ranch in New York, Joe’s family employs migrant workers from Mexico. The summer will find Joe working alongside the Mexicans and sharing their life. As Joe gets to know the workers, he realizes that his attitude toward them is changing. And he begins to see his own friends in a different light. |
12-16 | United States, Mexico | Migration, Diversity | Story 7 |
| Calendars of the World- a look at calendars & the ways we celebrate Taking the reader on a trip through time and around the globe, this guide charts the growth and development of the world’s various timekeeping systems. It also describes the feasts and festivals connected with humanity’s efforts to measure the passage of time. As well as describing our own Gregorian calendar, this book explains the cultural and religious influences behind the development of a wide range of calendar systems including systems as diverse as Aztec, Greek, Navaho and Zoroastrian. |
8-14 | Culture | Story 8 | |
| Start with a Story – Supporting young children’s exploration of issues An excellent handbook which suggests ways of using storybooks to explore feelings, experiences and issues with young children. A variety of tried and tested activities are illustrated with a range of stories. |
3-11 | Conflict, Disability, Diversity and Inclusion, Environment, Equality, Family, Gender, Human rights, Identity, Language | Story 9 | |
| W is for World – A round the world ABC This wonderful round the world alphabet book covers more than twenty countries from Senegal to Nepal. It is an alphabet book of people, cultures and customs. It tells about the homes we live in, the kinds of food we eat, the clothes we wear and the families we live with. |
3-11 | Bangladesh, Bolivia, Colombia, Mali, North America, Pakistan, Seychelles, South Africa, Sri Lanka | Diversity and Inclusion, Family, Farming, Identity, Rural, Urban | Story 10 |
| B is for Black In this book, the pride and dignity of the black community is celebrated. Teachers will find it a useful multicultural resource. |
8-14 | Anti-Racism, Diversity | Story 11 | |
| Storyworlds Storyworlds suggests geographical activities for ten popular stories. These include ideas for exploring development issues. For instance the impact of the forced removal of a community in ‘Shaker Lane’ or exploring preconceptions of Africa as a rural continent by looking at city life in South Africa in ‘Somewhere in Africa’. This is an interesting and practical resource, which is clearly set out and easy to use. The approach can be used with many stories. |
5-14 | Community, Conservation, Culture, Development, Diversity and Inclusion, Drought, Employment, Environment, Rural, Tourism, Urban, Waste, Water | Story 12 | |
| The Hundred Dresses The book centers on Wanda Petronski, a poor and friendless Polish-American girl. Her teacher, outwardly kind, puts her in the worst seat in the schoolroom and does not intervene when her schoolmates tease her. One day, after her classmates laugh at her funny last name and the faded blue dress she wears to school every day, Wanda claims to own one hundred dresses, all lined up in her closet at her worn down house. This outrageous and obvious lie becomes a game, as the girls in her class corner her every day before school, demanding that she describe for them all of her dresses.Wanda ends up leaving school and moving to the city. After she has moved, a dress design competition at school reveals that she was, indeed, telling the truth. Her winning entry consists of beautiful, detailed drawings of one hundred dresses, each exactly as she had described. Her tormentors are awed by her artistic talent. |
9-12 | United States of America | Diversity | Story 13 |
| Talking Drum The pack includes stories from India, Nigeria, China and Peru, games and songs. |
4-9 | India, Nigeria, China, Peru | Story 14 | |
| A different story An excellent handbook which looks at imaginative ways of using stories to empathise with a range of characters. Many of the texts are set in the South and explore issues such as conflict, poverty, racism and the environment. The activities are presented in four sections. ‘Introducing the text’, suggests ways of scene-setting, exploring the characters, making predictions and identifying dilemmas and choices. |
7-11 | Africa, Asia, India, Jamaica, Latin America, Namibia, Pakistan, Viet Nam | Community, Conflict, Environment, Equality, Family, Global citizenship, Human rights, Poverty, Racism, Religion | Story 15 |
| Lullabies around the World 10 different lullabies with English translations(includes music CD) |
4-8 | Music, Culture | Story 16 | |
| African Playground An entertaining and educational musical expedition to Africa for children and families. |
Music, Culture | Story 17 | ||
| World Playground This anthology of children-related tracks originates from the globally conscious Putamayo Records catalog. Artists from Africa (Senegal’s Touré Kunda, Congo’sRicardo Lemvo), Europe (France’sManu Chao), the Caribbean (Jamaica’s Cedella Marley Booker), North America (Buckwheat Zydeco and Eric Bibbfrom the U.S.; Canada’s Teresa Doyle), South America (Brazil’s Nazaré Pereira), and Australia (Trevor Adamson) offer tracks, and while the styles and moods vary, the album gels excellently. Even if the multicontinent angle strikes you as too catholic, it bears reiterating that this is a “playground” session, a collection that begins with a Senegalese in-line dance and continues through “Mardi Gras Mambo,” a bongo-playing French monkey, and much more. |
Music, Culture | Story 18 | ||
| Gift of the Tortoise The jewel in the crown in the Music for Little People catalog, Gift of the Tortoise is stunning in its beauty and uncompromising in its delivery of excellence. Expressed from the viewpoint of a very wise tortoise, the lush harmonies of Ladysmith Black Mambazo are supported by renowned guitarist Johnny Clegg and storyteller Gcina Mhlophe, creating a captivating blend of Zulu lore, South African history, and that country’s brave optimism in the post-Apartheid era. As the drama unfolds, the listener is drawn into the spell cast by this marvelous group of players as they carry out the chant of ancestral names on “Two Shelleni,” the folk legend of the “Boy Who Turned into a Cat,” and the classic “Mbube (the Lion Sleeps Tonight). |
Music, Culture | Story 19 | ||
| Andrew McKenna Tells Tales Stories about the kindness of our world, stories to laugh with, to uplift, and to give us courage |
Culture | Story 20 | ||
| Multicultural Map of Songs | Music, Culture | Story 21 |
The GOWC is concerned about stereotypical portrayals of the Global South in both images and messages. We try to present an accurate picture of the world and the unequal power structures within; and as such have signed up to the 
