The outline sent to the members of the Committee on Storytelling called for the mention of specific stories and for personal experience in group formation,taking into account age and sex,time and place,and for a statement of results,in so far as such results could be stated.From five hundred different stories mentioned a composite list of "Fifty Stories for the Playground"has been made.This list is chiefly composed of fairy and folk tales,Indian legends,and animal stories,as making the strongest appeal to playground groups and to library groups unaccustomed to listening to stories.
It also represents the story literature most easily commanded by the storyteller who has not read widely.Stories from the Norse and Greek Mythology,from the Niebelungen Lied,the Arthurian legends,and from Robin Hood;stories of Roland and of Charlemagne;stories from the Faerie Queene,and from the Canterbury Tales;historical and biographical stories are generously represented in the five hundred titles,but such stories should not be attempted without sufficient reading and feeling for the subject to enable the storyteller to bring it vividly and naturally before such a group as she is likely to meet in her daily experience.
Satisfactory festival stories are reported as exceedingly difficult to find.Several stories growing out of personal experiences,such as a "Christmas in Germany,"a "May Day in England,""Fourth of July in the Garden of Warwick Castle,"(The Warwick Pageant of 1900)are mentioned.Atmosphere and festival spirit are often lacking in stories listed under Festivals and Holidays.
Poetry and verses are repeated or read at many of the library story hours.Lear's nonsense rhymes and certain rhythmical story poems are especially enjoyed by the children.Outlines of stories or selections from books designed to lead to the reading of an entire book are mentioned in connection with Dickens,Kipling,Stevenson,Scott,Victor Hugo,and other authors.
In addition to the list of "Fifty Stories for the Playground"a list of "Books to Read on the Playground"has been prepared.
Nearly all of the public libraries mentioned in the report send books to playgrounds when the playgrounds desire it.The use of books in the roof reading-rooms of libraries is very similar to their use in the playgrounds.Here and in children's reading-rooms boys and girls are free to choose the books they really want to read.In his book entitled "The American Public Library,"Dr.Arthur E.Bostwick makes this statement:"There are no intellectual joys equal to those of discovery.The boy or girl who stumbles on one of the world's masterpieces without knowing what anyone else thinks or has thought about it,and reading it,admires and loves it,will have that book throughout life as a peculiar intellectual possession in a way that would have been impossible if someone had advised reading it and had described it as a masterpiece.The very fact that one is advised to read a book because one ought to do so is apt to arouse the same feeling of repulsion that caused the Athenian citizen to vote for the banishment of Aristides just because he had grown so weary of hearing him always called 'The Just.'"
