Publications

Listen to Fran's interview on KWGS

Books:

  • How to Fool a Cat: Japanese folktales for children. Thirty-nine of Hiroko Fujita's traditional stories and 3 games, edited and adapted by Fran Stallings. Storytelling World Honor Award.
  • The Price of Three Stories: rare folktales from Japan, a collection of 51 of Hiroko Fujita's traditional stories for young adult and adult readers, edited by Fran Stallings. Storytelling World Honor Award. Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award.
  • Folktales from the Japanese Countryside, a collection of 46 of Hiroko Fujita's traditional stories edited by Fran Stallings. The book includes a brief summary of Japanese history by emeritus professor Harold Wright, an overview of Japanese storytelling by Miki Sakurai, and a section of games, recipes, and crafts as well as facinating background notes on the stories. Please order from publisher.
  • Look At That Mouse! Diversions and Stories with a Mouse Puppet by Fran Stallings with Ken Oguss. 6 fingerplays, 13 stories with instructions on how to animate a mouse fingerpuppet, always handy for emergencies. A white or brown minimouse puppet is included! Prairie-Fire Productions, 2002.
  • Stories to Play With: Kids' Tales Told with Puppets, Paper, Toys, and Imagination by Hiroko Fujita, adapted & edited by Fran Stallings. Little Rock AR: August House, 1999. ISBN 0-87483-553-4. A valuable handbook for folks who work with smallfry or ESL kids, or who train beginning tellers. Please order from publisher.

(You can mailorder some of these books from Fran.)

Fran has contributed stories to the following collections:

  • "Stories from the Earthteller," a regular column in The Environmentor, a digital newsletter of the Oklahoma Association for Environmental Education, published by Oklahoma City University. The columns are reprinted HERE
  • "Orosu" Fran edited the translation of this long, poignant, romantic Japanese tale for the Spirit of Trees website.
  • "The Story of Paper Flower" in Joining In: An Anthology of Audience Participation Stories & How to Tell Them compiled by Teresa Miller, edited by Norma Livo. Cambridge MA: Yellow Moon Press, 1988. ISBN 0-938756-21-4.
  • "The Giant Pumpkin" and "Three Apprentices" in The Ghost & I: Scary Stories for Participatory Telling edited by Jennifer Justice. Cambridge MA: Yellow Moon Press, 1992. ISBN 0-938756-37-0.
  • "Rabbit, Bobcat, and the Turkeys" in Holiday Stories All Year Round: Audience Participation Stories and More edited by Violet Teresa deBarba Miller) Libraries Unlimited 2008, ISBN13: 9781591586753.
  • "Shingebiss and the North Wind" (text only) in Best Stories from the Texas Storytelling Festival edited by Finley Stewart. Little Rock: August House Publishers, 1995. ISBN 0-87483-405-8. NOTE: I also offer the story with extensive background notes and a musical notation for the chant with chordal accompaniment. 
  • "1890: The Year of the Turnip in Oklahoma" in Many Voices: True Tales From America's Past edited by Mary Weaver. Jonesborough TN: National Storytelling Press, 1995 with a teacher's guide. ISBN 1-879991-17-9

Articles about storytelling:

  • "Storytelling in the Classroom: Following-Up with Bloom's Taxonomy" The National Storytelling Journal, Fall 1986, pp 12-15.
  • "The Web of Silence: Storytelling's Power to Hypnotize" The National Storytelling Journal, Spring/Summer 1988, pp 6-19. 
  • "Beg, Borrow, or Steal" editorial in Territorial Tattler spring 1989.
  • "In Celebration of Her Story (Women's History)" Storytelling Magazine Winter 1991 pp30-31.
  • "Journey into Darkness: The Story-Listening Trance" unpublished book chaper ©1993.
  • "Honesty, Respect, Compassion: strengthening character through storytelling" in Storytelling Magazine, January 1997.
  • "Leaping the Language Barrier" (with Hiroko Fujita), pp10-11 in Storytelling Magazine March/April 2000.
  • "From Folk Tale to 'Fact-Tale': Teaching Science in the Shape of a Story" pp32-34 in Storytelling Magazine, May/June 2002.
  • "Crafting Science Stories" (with story "The Demons of Mali") pp 39-41 in Storytelling Magazine, May/June 2005.
  • Fran's interview about environmental storytelling on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf
  • Numerous reviews of storytelling resources in The National Storytelling Journal, Storytelling Magazine, and Territorial Tattler.