Happily Ever After: Sharing Folk Literature with Elementary and Middle School Students (review)

Happily Ever After provides a broadly accessible resource for those who teach kindergarten through secondary students and even for instructors of undergraduate classes that survey folk literature. The contributors include university, junior college, secondary, and elementary educators as well as professional folklorists, editors, and specialists in language, library, and educational policy. Topics range from myth, legend, and folktale to a broad coverage of multicultural literatures, with thematic chapters ranging from African and Asian folklore to ones on European, Jewish, Latino, Middle Eastern, subcontinental Indian, and Native American folklore. Each chapter closes with an extensive list of scholarly studies and children's books applicable to the chapter's theme.

The text also includes chapters addressing fieldwork and the collection of folklore in the home, the school, and the community. Further, classroom applications for use in various content areas are part of this comprehensive pedagogical handbook. For example, Anne Marie Kraus, one of the contributors, demonstrates how concepts in her chapter, "The How and Why of Folk Tales," can be paired "very nicely with science and social studies lessons" (p. 25). Referenced are nonfiction resources, which clarify and verify deep scientific beliefs and practices among some Native American tribes. Further, other referenced resources provide cultural insights and information about regional animals and landforms. From tricksters to fairy tales, this text covers the spectrum of folk literature and even includes informed discussion of problematic ideologies that sometimes appear in well-known traditional tales. In one chapter, Darcy Bradly reminds the reader that legends are often symbolic and that "all legends are to some extent 'stories that teach,' depending on what the reader, listener, or culture values" (p. 83). Evelyn Freeman, in "Jewish Folk Tales: From Elijah the Prophet to the Wise Men of Chelm," reminds the reader of the oral storytelling tradition "integral to the fabric of Jewish life" (p. 190), and Jane Kelley, quoting Jane Yolen, suggests the possibility of anti-Semitic overtones in Rumpelstiltskin (p. 325).

The text succinctly covers numerous topics in brief overviews that may be dissatisfying to scholars but that will prove particularly helpful to primary-school teachers. Early-education instructors must introduce numerous subjects to their young students, and these teachers have little time for complex research. For teachers of high school and university students, the text can serve as a stimulus to more in-depth research—for both themselves and their students.

Important researchers and scholars of folk literature are mentioned in the text, along with brief overviews of their contributions. Authors of folk-literature scholarship are listed in the back of the book, but it would be more helpful if at least their primary texts had been gathered into an annotated bibliography and included there. Many charts and tables throughout the text delineate accessible information, covering topics from fairy-tale variants (p. 33-35) and folksongs (p. 49) to Latino flood myths (p. 210) and forms of folklore (p. 267). These furnish useful information for any level of teaching. Cited in the text is the Urban Legends Reference Pages (http://www.snopes2.com), a Web site that is described as "full of information about and examples of urban legends" (p. 277); however, a chapter on urban lore would have been a useful addition to the collection. Elementary and middle school students hear and tell the myriad legends that circulate in contemporary culture, and it would be appropriate to develop the topic with them. This is an unfortunate omission.

The collection of essays is consistent in format and style, and the book provides an easy-to-use reference for educators who plan to introduce the study of folk literature in their classes. The text may also serve as a broad overview for the lay reader interested in learning more about folk literature.