Do you have a favourite story? I'm sure you do. Stories are exciting. Everyone loves to listen to a good story.
Storytelling has been part of human history for a long time. Early humans drew stories on cave walls to tell others about their lives. But stories are very different now. We tell stories with words. We tell stories with books. We tell stories with movies. There are lots of types of stories. Let's look at some!
Do you know the story of the lion and the mouse? A little mouse was running in the forest. Suddenly, he came across a huge lion sleeping. “Spare me!” screamed the mouse. “I will repay you one day!” The lion found this funny. He released the mouse. The next day, while hunting, the lion got caught in a trap. He couldn’t free himself. The little mouse found him. He bit the rope and freed the lion. The lion was free!
This famous story is an example of a fable. It teaches us a lesson. What is the lesson? We should always choose kindness. The lesson is the moral of the story.
There are lots of different fables: The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, The Wolf and the Crane... They all have different morals.
Have you ever heard of Zeus? He is a god. Zeus is the king of all gods. Zeus controlled the skies.
In ancient Greece, storytellers told tales about their gods. These stories are called myths. Myths tell stories to explain natural things, such as weather or disasters.
In ancient Greek mythology, there are lots of different gods. Hades is the god of the dead and king of the underworld. Poseidon is the god of the sea, and Hera is the goddess of love.
Another type of old story is called a legend. Have you heard of Robin Hood? The legendary Robin Hood lived in Nottinghamshire, England. No one was better than him with a bow and arrow. He took money from the rich and gave it to the poor. He was a hero who saved people's lives.
The story is exciting, but there is no proof that it was true. Myths and legends aren’t true stories. It is still exciting to tell them!
This last type of story is very famous. I bet you know the story of Cinderella, a girl with evil step sisters who went to a ball and found her prince. Or Little Red Riding Hood, who went to visit her grandma and found a wolf pretending to be her! These are examples of fairy tales.
Fairy tales are stories for children. They often include magic. Have you seen a story start with "Once upon a time"? Have you seen a story end with "happily ever after" or “the end”? It was probably a fairy tale!
Are you a good storyteller? What is your favourite type of story?