Page 44 - DK Children's Encyclopedia

The story of...

Storytelling

Animal stories
Storytelling is the activity of telling or writing Many stories feature animals
as their main characters. These
stories. They can be real or made up, can be animals speak and dress like real
of any length, and can be about any subject. people, although they often
People have always told stories to entertain live in animal homes. Br’er
Rabbit is a character
each other or to inform people about, and from the South.
make sense of, their world.

Oral history Br’er Rabbit
wears human
Because early people clothes.
couldn’t read or write, they
passed on stories by telling
them to each other. The
storyteller often acted out
bits of the story. People still
tell stories in this
way today.
Br’er Rabbit
In ancient India, Storytelling in a library
people recited all
10,600 What is a story?

A story is a fictional (made-up)
verses of the sacred account of imaginary or real
hymn book, Rigveda, events and people. A story has a
from memory. beginning, a middle, and an end.
The Chinese story of Pangu
explains the creation
of the Earth.

Beginning Middle End
In the beginning, there was chaos. Out As Pangu grew up, he created the Earth When Pangu died, his breath became
of chaos came an egg, and out of this and the sky, and stood between them the wind, his voice became thunder,
egg hatched Pangu, the first creature. to force them slowly apart. and his bones became valuable minerals.

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