A Storytelling Bookshelf
Reviewed By MaLisa Horton
Published by Aaron Shepard, this site provides a listing of story telling tools. Within each category, such as Storytelling Guides, there is a brief description of the source and an opinion about the usefulness of the source. The opinions are very casual and apparently based upon Mr. Shepard's use of the said materials.
His postings appear to authoritative in format, but there is no reference to similar rankings by other professional story tellers. Mr. Shepard's listings do include authors, web links, and publishers so it would be easy to verify any of his information.
According to this page and related links, Mr. Shepard is an actor and story teller. Extensive information about his credentials in this field are not mentioned on this page or the home page link. The information that he has posted does lend credibility to his site and information.
Mr. Shepard has prepared this page to share some tools-of-the-trade which he has apparently found useful in his development as a story teller, so I can not say that the information is without bias. He apparently included only sources he found at least somewhat useful. Also, the site does not include any update information, but the copyright information states 1996-1998. It appears the page has not been updated since that time.
His listings cover storytelling guides, collections, reference tools, and two miscellaneous notes. The information about each site is brief and opinionated, but probably helpful, especially to newcomers in the storytelling field.
Reviewed By Raymond Wells
A Storytelling Bookshelf, published by Aaron Shepard, is virtually what it claims to be, providing a solid, though not overly extensive list of story collections, storytelling guides, and reference materials for storytellers. Presentationally, the site is no frills, text only, with a few links. Also, there is no indication of updating the listed resources since 1998. However, this is a commercial site with multiple links to Amazon.com as well as links to the home page of Aaron Shepard.
Once you connect with the Shepard pages, you have basically entered a personal promotional web site. Shepard provides links to sign up for his newsletter, information on his storytelling appearances and lists of his books. Although even his personal web site is visually blah, the links he provides are well done, easy to navigate, and provide a great deal of material and information about this author/storyteller. Links for looking at his published works include illustration samples, text excerpts, ordering information, and review excerpts. There are no bad reviews, of course, but then this is a sell yourself situation. Beyond this, however, Shepard has a link titled Aaron’s Extras that provides printable posters, streaming audio of the author reading, story background, music segments, pronunciation of names from the book, and readers theater scripts for 14 of his published books.
The Storytellers Bookshelf, in itself, has little more value than an online version of a slightly dated textbook’s bibliography. However, the link to Shepard’s homepage provides a resource for a guest storyteller complete with audio samples, and as many as 14 prospective book purchases with unique support materials.