Book list
This book list is just a beginning collection. There could be so many more books I could add, but this is a good place to start. Beneath this list is another, a list of books about Selkies, the seal people.
About Teaching Storytelling:
The Way of the Storyteller - Ruth Sawyer, Penguin 1942
Our Stories Remember - Joseph Bruchac, Fulcrum Publishing, 2003
Tell Me A Tale - Joseph Bruchac, Harcourt & Brace, 1997
Children Tell Stories - Martha Hamilton & Mitch Weiss, Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc, 1990
Improving Your Storytelling - Doug Lipman, August House, 1999
An Elementary Odyssey - David H. Millstone, Heineman, 1995
Dr. Martin Shaw goes very deep into the mythos of storytelling and I have found two books (2020, 2021) to be very interesting reads. They both combine stories, but also talk about what Shaw thinks is important about the tales he is retelling and what they mean today.
Courting the Wild Twin
Smokehole, Looking into the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass
Both books available from Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont
Folklore and Fairy Tale Books
Under the Oaken Bough - Simon Brooks, Parkhurst Brothers, 2018
Indian Fairy Tales - Joseph Jacobs, Dover, 1969 (stories from India)
English Fairy Tales - Joseph Jacobs, Dover, 1967
Celtic Fairy Tales - Joseph Jacobs, Senate, 1994
Irish Fairy and Folk Tales - William Butler Yeats, The Modern Library, 2003
Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland - Jeremiah Curtin, Little, Brown & Co., 1890
Tales of the Seal People - Duncan Williamson, Interlink, 2005
'Coloured' Fairy Book Series - Andrew Lang, (Blue, Green, Brown etc), Dover, 1965
Arab Folktales - translated by Inea Bushnaq, Pantheon, 1986
A Treasury of African Folklore - Harold Courlander, Marlowe & Co., 1996
Favorite African Folktales - Nelson Mandela, Norton, 2002
Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies - translated by Moss Roberts, Pantheon, 1979
Japanese Tales - translated by Royall Tyler, Pantheon, 1987
Favorite Folktales from Around the World - Jane Yolen, Pantheon, 1986
American Indian Myths and Legends - Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, Pantheon, 1984
Latin American Folktales - translated by John Bierhorst, Pantheon, 2002
The Norse Myths - Kevin Crossley-Holland, Pantheon, 1980
Norwegian Folktales - Peter Christian Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe, Pantheon, 1982
Best-loved Folktales - Joanna Cole, Anchor Books, 1982
Tatterhood and Other Tales - Ethel Johnston Phelps, The Feminist Press, 1978
Beowulf - Michael Morpurgo, Candlewick Press, 2006
The Complete Brothers Grimm
Bullfinch's Mythology
Jane Yolen has also written a book called Touch Magic, which is about literacy, and is a wonderful book to read.
Duncan Williamson is a legend of Scottish stories. Any book of his is worth getting. Unfortunately many are out of print. Not the one (at this point) above!
Kevin Crossley-Holland is another prolific folklorist. He has a children's version of the Norse Myths, but it is an edited version of the one mentioned above. All things by Crossley-Holland are definitely worth a look at, the same goes for Joseph Bruchac - both the books mentioned above and his story books.
The Beowulf version I have listed is for juvenile readers and is very accessible although there are many different translations. James Rumford has another juvenile version using only Anglo-Saxon words, and of course there is also the wonderful translation by Seamus Heaney.
The Selkie
There is one story often told about the Selkie. I heard it first in Scotland, but there are other versions of the tale from other countries and cultures. It is the story called Woman of the Sea or The Seal Skin. But there are many more tales about the Seal People. Here are some of my own sources which also include this wonderful and often told tale and other books I have come across.
Books containing stories about the Seal People
Northern Lights - Kevin Crossley-Holland, Faber & Faber, 1987
World Folktales - Atelis Clarkson & Gilbert B Cross, Scribners, 1980
Irish Fairy Tales - Jeremiah Curtain, Barnes & Noble, 1993
Scottish Folk & Fairy Tales - Sir George Douglas, Walter Scott Publishing, 1892
More Ready-to-Tell Tales - David Holt & Bill Mooney, August House, 2000
Icelandic Folk and Fairy Tales - May & Hallburg Hallmunddsson, Iceland Review, 1987
People of the Sea - David Thomson - Turnstile Press, 1954
Tales of the Seal People, Scottish Folktales - Duncan Williamson - Interlink, 2005
A Thorn in the King's Foot - Duncan and Linda Williamson - Penguin, 1987
The Folk Keeper - Franny Billingsley, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2001
Faery Tales and Nightmares - Melissa Marr, HarperCollins, 2012
The Selkie Girl - Susan Cooper, Margaret K. McElderry, 1986 (picture book)
The Lunenburg Werewolf and other Stories of the Supernatural - Steve Vernon, Nimbus Publishing, 2011
If you have other sources for stories of the Selkie, please let me know and I will add them to the list.
The following were provided by Claire Miller:
Land of the Seal People – Duncan Williamson, Birlinn, 2010 (overlaps with other Duncan W collections, but includes some stories published here for the first time)
The Mermaid Bride and Other Orkney Folk Tales – Tom Muir, The Orcadian Ltd (Kirkwall Press), 1998
Orkney Folk Tales – Tom Muir, The History Press, 2014
The Seal Mother – Mordicai Gerstein, Dial, 1986 (picture book)
Greyling: a picture story from the Islands of Shetland – Jane Yolen, World Publishing, 1968 (picture book)