Resource Links Best Books 2010 - Professional Resources

This ground breaking book provides teachers in the early grades with the background and practical approaches to maximize the potential of traditional tales with their students.
Charles outlines the contributions to our understanding of the fairy tale genre by Bettelheim, Favat, Rodari, and Jung and then builds on the pioneering work of Vladimir Propp to create an easy to use symbol system which guides students to tell - orally, pictorially, and in writing - their own stories based on archetypes that are fully developed in the book. Her approach has been tested in numerous classrooms with wonderful and often surprising results.

Fairy Tales In The Classroom contains all the tools, suggestions and stories that teachers need to give their students life transforming experiences and a solid background for all their future writing.

Veronika Martenova Charles grew up in Prague, Czechoslovakia. When her grandmother put a stop to her drawing classes, she became a singer instead. After her dramatic arrival in Canada, she studied art at university and became an award-winning author and illustrator. Her books include Maiden of the Mist, The Birdman, and her series for beginning readers: Easy-To-Read Spooky Tales and Easy-To-Read Wonder Tales. Veronika is currently researching the future of children's storytelling in doctoral studies.

Veronika Charles' profile page

Betsy Hearne is a world renowned author, teacher, and reviewer. She is past Director of the Center for Children's Books and professor emerita at the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champagne.

Betsy Hearne's profile page

"There is an impressive amount of research and information in this useful book. The teacher is provided with detailed steps to carry through the process with several examples using different types of tales. Besides the anthology of tales, Charles includes a complete set of reproducible symbols, guiding questions for creating new tales, and further notes to accompany some of the tales. This kind of practical detail can be helpful to the practitioner in implementing this technique.
Highly Recommended."
— CM Magazine

"A wonderful resource for any teacher, this textbook would be a particular asset to those working in primary/elementary classrooms. . . What makes this book really unique is her descriptions of classroom procedures, outlining, for example, how to create an action symbol map. . . An excellent resource book which shares a great way to teach fairy tales and inspire story building in children."
Rated E (Excellent)
— Resource Links