The Golden Thread

"The story is alive as the breath is alive," writes Susan Danoff in The Golden Thread. For storytellers, would-be storytellers, teachers, librarians, and educators, Susan's book invites you into the joys, techniques, and gifts of story, explaining in an easy, welcoming way how storytelling teaches tolerance, inclusivity, literacy skills, writing, social and emotional learning, including an entry into the "big questions" in life. Next best to having Susan visit your classroom telling six of the magical stories in the book, is to own the book itself, to refresh your understanding of the importance and value of storytelling.

-Diane Wolkstein
author of The Magic Orange Tree and other Haitian Folktales

The Golden Thread took my breath away. It is a book all teachers, parents, and practicing storytellers need and will return to often. Susan Danoff gets it about storytelling, about children, and about the social nature of learning. She knows how teachers struggle to claim themselves as artists, but challenges them to see how perfectly positioned they are to be storytellers. She invites them to look at how storytelling is an ancient way of teaching, and she offers lots of help for stepping into the role of teacher as storyteller. What makes The Golden Thread extra special are Danoff's six retellings of traditional folktales and her original folktale-like literary stories. These delicious tales change the pace of this professional book yet completely support its meaning.

-Marni Gillard
author of Storyteller, Storyteacher