Family Stories

Family Stories Month is celebrated each November. This is an especially good time for teachers and librarians to encourage children and teenagers to connect to their family history through story. November 27 is designated as a National Day of Listening. Students and patrons should be engaged in activities that help them make the connection between listening and the place of story in our lives. Try the following activities:

• Ask students or patrons to bring a photo from a family vacation/event and prepare a story about the occasion to tell to the group. Encourage them to use description and expression.
• Read aloud Stitchin’ and Pullin’: A Gee’s Bend Quilt by Patricia C. McKissack & illus. by Cozbi A. Cabrera. How do the quilts reflect family stories? Ask readers to find out if there are quilts in their families that tell a story. Perhaps the quilts are pieced with fabrics from significant clothing like baby garments.
• Explain the concept of oral history. Then encourage students to record an older family member telling a story from their childhood. Then ask them to make a quilt square that best symbolizes the story told by their family member. If piecing a quilt isn’t possible, allow them to design the square using paper.
• Ask readers to interview 4 or 5 neighbors or adult friends of different ages about their memories of a historic national event. How did it impact their personal lives? Some may relate events of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the day Kennedy was assassinated, the Challenger explosion, etc. Is there something special about the personal memory that is worthy of documentation? Relate the personal parts of the stories to the group.
• Discuss the qualities of good storytelling. Ask readers to find a story that has been handed down through the ages and prepare to tell it to another class or group. Suggest the following books from Random House:
  • The Dark Thirty by Patricia McKissack & illus. by Brian Pinkney
  • The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton & illus. by Leo & Diane Dillon (ages 8-up)
  • The People Could Fly: The Picture Book by Virginia Hamilton & ills. by Leo & Diane Dillon (ages 8-up)
  • Many Thousand Gone by Virginia Hamilton & illus by Leo & Diane Dillon (ages 8-up)
  • Porch Lies by Patricia McKissack & illus by Andre Carrilho (ages 9-12)
• Readers enjoy choral reading, and this is a good way to celebrate National Day of Listening. Divide the class or large groups into small groups and ask them to select a favorite poem to perform as a choral reading. Suggestions from Random House include:
  • The 20th Century Children’s Poetry Treasury by Jack Pretlutsky & illus. by Meilo So (all ages)
  • The Dream Keeper and Other Poems by Langston Hughes & illus. by Brian Pinkney (ages 9-up)
• Readers may also want to have fun with a favorite Dr. Seuss story and prepare it as a Rap and perform it for another group.
• Introduce books that have a strong family connection in the story. Have students read one book and write a letter that the main character may write to someone in their family about an important event in the story and how the event impacts them. Suggestions from Random House include:
  • All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel by Dan Yaccarina (ages 5-9)
  • Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (ages 9-12)
  • Cuba 15 by Nancy Osa (ages 12-up)
  • Faith, Hope, and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (ages 9-12)
  • Goodbye, Vietnam by Gloria Whelan (ages 9-12)
  • Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larsen (ages 12-up)
  • A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff (ages 9-12)
  • Jacob’s Rescue by Maika Drucker & Michael Halperin (ages 9-12)
  • Like Jake and Me by Mavis Jukes (ages 10-up)
  • Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (ages 9-12)
  • The Quilt by Gary Paulsen (ages 9-12)
  • The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales (ages 12-up)
  • Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm (ages 9-12)
• Finally, encourage families to read together by asking readers to suggest stories to their parents to read aloud during the month of November. Ask them to pick novels with themes of family. Suggestions from Random House include:
  • The Lucky Stone by Lucille Clifton (ages 7-11)
  • Alida’s Song by Gary Paulsen (ages 10-up)
  • The Elevator Family by Douglas Evans (ages 8-12)
  • Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (ages 9-12)
  • Noah Barleywater Runs Away by John Boyne with artwork by Oliver Jeffers (ages 8-12)
  • The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (ages 8-12)
  • The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone (ages 8-12)
  • The Watsons Go To Birmingham1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (ages 9-12)