 his popular anthology is a collection of 48 read-aloud
stories aimed primarily at the kindergarten through
fourth-grade levels, all selected and annotated
with commentary by Jim Trelease. (See Read All
About It! for older students.) They range in complexity
from very simple, two-page tales to more complicated
tales of a dozen pages.
Always keep in mind the difference between listening
level
and reading level: that
difference can be huge.
Recognizing
that some adult readers might wish to use the
book to gradually stretch children's attention
spans and interest levels, the less complex and
shorter tales can be found toward the front of
the book while longer stories are in the second
half. A complete list of all the stories (and
categories) are found below.
Most
of the selections are self-contained stories,
complete in themselves. Others are selections
from early chapters in excellent read-aloud novels.
The intention here being to whet the reader's and
listener's appetite for the rest of the novel.
 consistent
mistake made by parents and teachers is the assumption
that a child's listening level is the same as his
or her reading level. Until about eighth grade,
that is far from true; early primary grade students
listen many grades above their reading level. This
means that early primary grade students are capable
of hearing and understanding stories that are far
more complicated than those they can read themselves.
Each of the selections
is accompanied by an introduction and a brief note
following the story. The latter offers related
books the child or adult might wish to pursue.
In addition, wherever possible, Trelease has provided
background information about the story and author—many
as fascinating at the authors' works themselves.
While originally intended as background knowledge
for the adult read-aloud, these introductions have
proven to be extremely popular with the child listener,
especially those in second grade and higher. ("It's
the stuff they'd never put on the back of the dust
jacket of the author's book," Trelease explains.)
 Among the profiles, you will
find the story of the best-selling children's author
of all time, whose overprotective parents kept
her practically a prisoner through childhood and
well into adulthood, who wins her freedom by writing
an escape book about a naughty animal (Beatrix
Potter).
Another contains the account
of one famous author's humble beginnings as a reader—she
was the only girl in the first-grade's "blackbird
reading" group and promoted to second grade
on "probation" because her reading was
so poor (Beverly Cleary). And there is the little-known
story of how one of America's classic dog stories
took nearly 25 years to write, yet was deliberately
destroyed by its author because he was too embarrassed
by its faulty spelling and grammar (Wilson Rawls'
Where the Red Fern Grows).
Two of
those author profiles are contained at this Web
site: Beverly Cleary and Wilson Rawls, as well
as one of the story excerpts from the anthology.
Excerpt from HEY!
LISTEN TO THIS included
here:
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OZMA OF OZ
by L. Frank Baum
CHAPTER ONE:
"The Girl in the
Chicken Coop"
This book is widely regarded as the best
of the OZ books.
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Authors profiled here
HEY! LISTEN
TO THIS
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• CONTENTS • •
TELL ME A STORY
- "The Gunniwolf" retold
by Wilhelmina Harper
- "Little Green Riding Hood" by
Gianni Rodari
- Wolf
Story by
William McCleery (novel
chapter)
TALES
FROM LONG AGO
- "Noah's Friends" by
Marc Gellman, from Does God Have
a Big Toe?
- "The Tortoise and the Hare" retold
from Aesop
SCHOOL
DAYS
- "Joe" by
Louis Sachar, from Sideways Stories
from Wayside School (novel chapter)
- "Ramona's
Great Day" by
Beverly Cleary, from Ramona the
Pest (novel
chapter)
- "A
Room Without Windows or Doors" by
Edith Fisher Hunter, from Child
of the Silent Night (novel
chapter)
- "Cheating" by
Susan Shreve, from Family Secrets
FOOD
FOR THOUGHT
- "Bavsi's Feast" by
Adele Geras
- "Meet
Henry Green" and "A
Strange Feeling" by Robert Kimmel
Smith, from Chocolate Fever (novel
chapter)
- "The
Doughnuts" by
Robert McCloskey, from Homer Price (novel
chapter)
FAMILIES
- "Alexander," by
June Epstein
- "Captain Cook," by
Richard and Florence Atwater, from Mr.
Popper's Penguins (novel
chapter)
- "The Pudding Like A Night on the
Sea" by Ann Cameron, from The Stories
Julian Tells
- "The Fish Angel" by
Myron Levoy, from The Witch of Fourth
Street and Other Stories
- "Nadia the Willful" by
Sue Alexander
- "Greyling" by
Jane Yolen
FOLK
AND FAIRY TALES
- "Unanana and the
Elephant" retold
by Kathleen Arnott
- "Brer Rabbit Gets Even" retold
by Julius Lester, from The Tales of Uncle
Remus
- "The Indian Cinderella" retold
by Cyrus Macmillan
- "Ah Mee's Invention" retold
by Arthur Bowie Chrisman, from Shen of
the Sea
- "The Emperor's New Clothes" retold
from Hans Christian Andersen
- "The Search for the Magic Lake" by
Genevieve Barlow
- "The Magic Thread" author
unknown
ANIMAL
TALES
- "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by
Beatrix Potter
- "Before
Breakfast" by
E. B. White, from Charlotte's Web (novel
chapter)
- Bambi by
Felix Salten (novel chapter)
- "My
Early Home" and "The
Hunt" by Anna Sewell, from Black
Beauty (novel chapter)
- "Not
for Sale" and "I Never
Want Another Dog" by Eric Knight,
from Lassie Come-Home(novel
chapter)
- Where
the Red Fern Grows by Wilson
Rawls, (novel
chapter)
- Gentle
Ben by Walt Morey (novel chapter)
GIGANTIC
CREATURES
- "The Story of Giant Kippernose" by
John Cunliffe
- "The Reluctant Dragon" by
Kenneth Grahame
- "The Moon's Revenge" by
Joan Aiken
FANTASY
LANDS
CHILDREN
OF COURAGE
- "The Boy Who Stopped the
Sea" retold
by Louis Untermeyer, from The World's
Great Stories
- The
Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh
(novel chapter)
- The
Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
(novel chapter)
- "I'm going to Get Me Some Big Words" and "A
Dream Begins to Grow" by Margaret
Davidson, from I Have a Dream: The Story
of Martin Luther King Jr.
ORPHANS
OF THE STORM
- Sara
Crewe by Frances Hodgson Burnett (novel
chapter)
- "The Story of Holly and Ivy" by
Rumer Godden
- "Aunt
Harriet Has a Cough" by
Dorothy Canfield Fisher, from Understood
Betsy (novel
chapter)
CLASSIC
TALES
- "The Golden Touch" retold
from Nathaniel Hawthorne's Wonder Book
- "The Pied Piper" retold
from Joseph Jacobs and Andrew Lang, with
poetry excerpts from Robert Browning
- "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" retold
from Andrew Lang's The Red Fairy Book
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