| Why
Weed Folktales?
Folktales
are not in themselves likely to become obsolete. We weed
folktales more often on the basis of how they are told.
Since there is no official text for a folktale, any one
can write a version and publish it. We weed versions that
are unacceptable to the modern reader, versions that are
overly wordy or precious;  versions
that display biases toward minorities. We consider how they
are illustrated. Most illustrations with black and one or
two colors are no longer appealing to children. Some forms
of illustration never go out of date, but some are badly
dated, or just plain sloppy art. We weed the unattractive
tales so that the good ones will stand up and beckon to
us.
Looking for multicultural bibliographies for different ethnic
groups? Check this site: Internet School Library Media Center
(http://falcon.jmu.edu/schoollibrary/multipub.htm).
Looking for lesson ideas to use with a folktale? Go to the
Doucette Index of lesson ideas for literature at: http://www.educ.ucalgary.ca/litindex/
Looking for a list of variants or parodies? Try D. K. Brown's
list of Fractured Fairy Tales at:
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/fft.html
Suggested
Dewey Numbers to Check:
Folklore
and folktales will usually be found in the 398s of your
collection. But you may also have some scattered in the
900s or even under folk art in the 745s. Also check your
audiovisual materials, vertical file, and poster collections.
Specific
Criteria for Weeding:
1.
Do the pictures or text exhibit bigotted attitudes? Racist?
Sexist?
2. Is the text readable by elementary children? Not too
many pages per story, large enough print, familiar words
with a few unusual words to give spice and verve to the
stories?
3. Is the text suitable to read aloud to the class? Well-written,
with words that inspire pictures in the mind?
 4.
Does this book contribute to a wider view of the world,
not just European or American origins? Are the stories set
in a variety of other countries, other parts of the United
States, or other time periods, thereby providing examples
for the multicultural or history curriculum? Are there notes
describing the provenance of the stories? (A nice extra.)
5. Do the pictures enhance the text? Masterful pen drawings,
collage or colorful paintings, for instance? Has the artist
rendered the exotic setting in an authentic manner?
6. Might teachers find the stories useful in their literary
studies of parallel fairy tales, variants, or parodies?
7. What gives the book extra value? Do the stories teach
through humor, for example? Can they be used to launch a
unit; as the basis for teaching storytelling; to stretch
the children's horizons?
Consider
Weeding Titles Like These:
- American
Negro folktales, 1967. LCCN 67028679
- The
boy who could do anything and other Mexican folktales, 1942.
LCCN 42036108
- Burmese
and Thai fairy tales, 1967. LCCN 67005829
- Complete
book of Indian crafts and lore, 1954. LCCN 54012821
- The
cow-tail switch and other West African stories, 1947. LCCN
47030108
- Damian
and the dragon : modern Greek folktales, 1965. LCCN 65024641
- The
favorite Uncle Remus, 1948. LCCN 48001944
- The
fire on the mountain and other Ethiopian stories, 1950.
LCCN 50007265
- The
five Chinese brothers, 1938. LCCN 38027908
- Gone
is gone : or, the story of man who wanted to do housework,
1935. LCCN 35027311
- Indian
adventure trails : tales of trails and tipis, ponies and
paddles, warpaths and warriors, 1953.
- Negro
folk tales for pupils in the primary grades, c1938. LCCN
38017132
- Pawnee
hero stories and folktales : with notes on the origin, customs,
and character of the Pawnee people, 1961. LCCN 61010153
- Red
man, white man; legends, tales and true accounts of the
American Indians, [1957]. LCCN 54007880
- Stories
from Old Russia, 1964. LCCN 63013627
- Stories
from Japan, 1960. LCCN 60010692
- Teepee
Stories in Basic Vocabulary, 1956. LCCN 55011204
- Three
gay tales from Grimm, 1943. LCCN 43051302
- Told
by Uncle Remus : new stories of the old plantation, 1905.
LCCN 05035798
- A
treasury of Jewish folklore : stories, traditions, legends,
humor, wisdom and folk songs of the Jewish people, 1948.
LCCN 48007593
- Up
Cutshin and down Greasy : folkways of a Kentucky family,
1959. LCCN 59010277
- We
always lie to strangers : tall tales from the Ozarks, 1951.
LCCN 51010537
- The
word on the Brazos; Negro preacher tales from the Brazos
bottoms of Texas, 1953. LCCN 53010834
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