64 Global Education Review 1 (2) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Global Education Review is a publication of The School of Education at Mercy College, New York. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Citation: Gladstone, Carol (2000). Stories to read aloud to children. [Review of the book How did Stories, by Frank Sanchez]. Global Education Review, 1 (2). 64-65. Book Review Stories to Read Aloud to Children “How Did Stories” by Frank Sanchez By Carol Gladstone Dr. Frank Sanchez, professor emeritus, educator, and raconteur has penned a series of children’s tales entitled How Did Stories. Like fables, these stories may have a moral, featuring anthropomorphized animals and natural phenomena. Others highlight contests and interpersonal relationships. Within the forty-five tale collection, Sanchez explains how the bat got its wings, how the zebra got its stripes, how the llama got it long coat, and how the elephant got his trunk. More than just an update of the ancient Aesop’s Fables, the author is a narrator who enchants children of all ages with his accounts and extraordinary vocabulary in context. Echoing the classic tales, Sanchez begins the volume with a vignette of a twenty-first century child bored with modern technology, and his return to the primal relationship between father and son. The father spins the tales since Google cannot give the youngster the information. Nor can cable, video, movies or the Internet replace the bond between parent and child. The volume is appropriate for recent immigrant families in the barrios of cities who may not yet own all the technological marvels that American-born children routinely enjoy and take for granted. Traditional values such as listening to one’s parents and proceeding with caution rather than rushing headlong into something are especially apropos themes for young people who often must resist negative peer pressure and gang affiliations. Instead, gentleness and cooperation between friends is a common theme. The book charms readers without being preachy. It has the mark of a literate storyteller that crafted the tales because he cares deeply about raising a generation of children who will Stories to read aloud to children 63 continue to treat others with respect and will teach their own children to do the same. The short stories make an excellent gift for a parent who wants to share an enchanted few minutes with a young person before bedtime. “How Did Stories” By Frank Sanchez Paperback. 180 pp. , Amazon.com. $19.00. About the Author Born in Puerto Rico, the author l e a r n e d E n g l i s h w h e n h e w a s t w e l v e . Frank Sanchez, PhD, now Professor Emeritus at Mercy College, New York, is a former New York City principal and teacher. These stories are a re-telling of stories he told to children many years ago. About the reviewer Carol Gladstone, PhD, Assistant Professor of English education at Mercy College, began teaching in a Sunday school kindergarten class when she was 12. She has taught middle and high school students in public education and supervised English departments in New York City high schools. Carol Gladstone, PhD, Assistant Professor of English education at Mercy College, began teaching in a Sunday school kindergarten class when she was 12. She has taught middle and high school students in public education and supervised English departmen...