Five Minute Tales by Margaret Read MacDonald

Years ago, I took a storytelling workshop with Margaret Read MacDonald. If you ever have the chance, jump at it. By the time the workshop was done, I had at least four stories learned and ready to go. If she isn't going to be doing a workshop in your vicinity in the near future, her books are the next best thing. I bought this book at the workshop I attended, and it has been my go-to resource whenever I need a story to tell.

The Princess Pinang Masak was the first story I ever told to teens, and the lesson at the end--that it is better to be ugly and know you are truly loved than to be loved only for your beauty--strikes a cord with many teen girls. After I told this at a program, a trio of girls went from giving me the stink eye when I said hello to seeking me out for an extended conversation. The magic of storytelling in action!

Scary stories are often popular with teens. The grisly parts of The Creature of the Night get gasps when I tell it. The open ending and complete lack of a description for the creature leaves plenty of room for imagination, and what we imagine is always scarier than what another person can describe.