Short Stories

One of the best aspects of life is reading and listening to stories. Most children grow up listening to the short stories that have been written and passed down through the years. They not only entertain children, but also function as valuable lessons in culture and manners. Even concepts are taught using the tool of story telling.

Fairy tales are one of the sub-genres of the short story category. And these are very popular amongst children. Apart from the classic stories, there are those that are written in today’s day and age that are as popular. What makes a story successful with children? Well, there are two major aspects – the length and characters.

Children tend to get bored rather easily. They get restless if the story drags on there is not much action. Nor should the story be overtly didactic in nature. This simply implies that the story should not overtly carry a moral, but should be an underlying factor of the story. This means that may the main character of the story should be the one carrying the moral responsibility.

The characters of the story should be animated. There should be real feel to the characters, especially the main characters. In fact, what entices children all the more to listen to a story is when the characters seem larger than life. And when narrating the story, one should be able to impersonate the characters. Also, the storybook should contain interesting pictures on every page that are vibrant and have an animated feel.