The Greenwood Folklore Handbooks are designed as reference sources for high school and undergraduate students….Jacqueline Thursby's new book is an accessible and interesting contribution to this series. It will serve as an useful introduction to major storytelling genres and significant texts, and the book also provides a helpful overview of important scholarship about folklore….The book succeeds as a handbook for beginning students and a general audience. The arrangement is logical and helpful, and readers will find Thursby's bibliographic references to be valuable sources for finding good compilations and further scholarship.

Journal of Folklore Research

Thursby defines and classifies the most prominent type of stories, both oral and written, and shares story examples and narratives from around the world.

American Libraries

For high school and undergraduate students and general readers, Thursby explains the meaning and use of many different kinds of stories, presents a number of exemplary texts, samples scholarly approaches to oral storytelling, and discusses contexts in which stories are told.

Reference & Research Book News

Story: A Handbook offers a clear and readable summary of folk narrative genres and presents an important longitudinal introduction to the study of story as classically understood, with concise articulations of the many genres that encompass narrative and the perspectives that have been brought to bear on it. The book is well suited as an introduction to the study of story, whether for students, teachers or professional storytellers.

Western Folklore