This is a collection of short stories (fairy tales the length of typical book chapters) about … where stories come from and how they work. Hence, pre-story.
The story starts with very early humans, living in a cave and barely being able to communicate. A mysterious, scary danger is coming. But how does our hero inform the others? How can he warn them in time? Stubborn as humans are, they don’t listen when he simply tells them to run away. And so he starts inventing a bit of a story around it …
These stories stand on their own and can be read to/by very young Apprentices without taking too long. But if you read them all, in order, you follow our heroes as they discover the power of stories and how to use them for good. Story by story, they discover why we tell them, and how to tell them most effectively. How stories can save lives, change hearts, or simply teach—far more effectively than many other means.
It’s a great setup for kids to start writing their own stories or read longer/more complicated books later.
This bundle was inspired by the Tales of 1001 Nights. Many stories are simplified, kid-friendly, more magical versions of its best tales. The Book Worm who narrates it all is basically the same “framing device” as used in that classic masterpiece. We took the fun ideas of flying carpets and mischievous genies and basically asked ourselves: “what if this was just a regular part of how your world worked?” If any of these stories resonated with you, you might try reading the vast library of tales in the original. But be warned: the original 1001 Nights stories are considerably more gruesome and … adult-ish.
Continue Exploring
Exhausted this resource? Below is a list of all resources (in this and other factions) around this same topic.
Product Contents
Below is a summary of this product's contents. The actual product might have even more inside, but never less.
- 16 short stories about the origins of storytelling
- The stories are included as a
.pdffile (most suitable for printing) and.epubfile (most suitable for ereaders). - The PDF has pages in “Half Letter” format (near A5; typical for books), but any computer system should allow printing 2 pages at once on a single A4/Letter page.
- Bingo Cards (for Apprentices to cross off things that appear as they listen to the story)