Summary
Summary of World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls
World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 6 h 15 min4 h 55 min fast, 7 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 88,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Stories teach through attention and feeling
A story can amuse a child like play while also feeding imagination, strengthening attention, and widening sympathy. For Sly, this makes storytelling a way of teaching that needs no heavy moral added at the end. The characters’ behavior already carries the lesson.
During the American Civil War, Henry Ward Beecher faces a howling crowd in Manchester. When he announces that he will tell a story, the noise stops. The scene captures Sly’s central belief: a tale reaches people where explanation alone may fail.
Key idea 2
Home gives stories their first place
Sly puts the home before school or church as the first place for stories.
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Key idea 3
Choose stories for the growing child
The tale that delights a small child may leave an older child unmoved.
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Key idea 4
Imagination belongs beside facts
Sly makes room for humor, make-believe, courage, biography, and Bible stories because different kinds of tales serve different purposes.
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Key idea 5
Tell from pictures rather than memory
Sly’s chief practical advice is to tell a story rather than read it aloud.
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Key idea 6
Children can act their way inside
A story need not end when the telling stops.
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Key idea 7
Wonder lets children feel a virtue
Folk tales and myths open questions about the world through vivid events.
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Key idea 8
Bible tales open a shared inheritance
Sly gives Bible stories a central place and argues that they become sectarian only when the teller makes them so.
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Key idea 9
Useful lives begin with small choices
Historical tales show courage through friendship, danger, and service.
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Go deeper: the whole of World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls
About 6 h 30 min to read.Start freeWho it’s for
You will love this book if you tell bedtime stories, teach Sunday school or a classroom, run a library story hour, or simply enjoy old tales, fables, Bible stories, and brave true deeds.
What this book is
Imagine a pancake that springs from the frying pan and rolls down a hill while a mother, a hen, a goose, and a gander run after it. Imagine a boy in Holland who holds back the sea with one finger. These scenes live in one book, and each takes about five minutes to tell.
World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls was gathered by William J. Sly, a writer in moral and religious education who lived in Denver. He told almost every tale to real listeners and trimmed each to its essential facts. The book holds 187 stories in eleven groups, plus guide chapters on how to tell them. You get a shelf of tales and a method for using them.
In this summary
- 1Stories teach through attention and feelingFree
- 2Home gives stories their first place
- 3Choose stories for the growing child
- 4Imagination belongs beside facts
- 5Tell from pictures rather than memory
- 6Children can act their way inside
- 7Wonder lets children feel a virtue
- 8Bible tales open a shared inheritance
- 9Useful lives begin with small choices
Storytelling is the golden method of teaching
Sly begins with a plain claim. Stories are the language of childhood, and boys and girls love them as they love no other speech. A story amuses like play, yet it also feeds the imagination, steadies attention, and builds a child's words and sympathies. A lively tale needs no heavy moral tacked on, because the behavior in it already teaches.
He backs the claim with history. The first teachers in Egypt, India, China, and Japan were storytellers, and Jesus taught in parables. One scene makes the point best. During the American Civil War, Henry Ward Beecher stands before a howling crowd in Manchester, England, and cannot be heard. He shouts that he will tell a story, and the uproar stops at once.
Stories work in Sunday school, in the kindergarten, in the grades, and in the library. A five-minute tale, well told, can do what an hour of explaining cannot. Tell a child a story, because few lessons last longer.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Sly think a lively story needs no added moral?
Right. “A lively tale needs no heavy moral tacked on, because the behavior in it already teaches.”Not quite. “A lively tale needs no heavy moral tacked on, because the behavior in it already teaches.”
How does Sly advise preparing to tell a story?
Right. “Read it a few times, picture the scenes, and then set the book aside.”Not quite. “Read it a few times, picture the scenes, and then set the book aside.”
What kind of courage do the Heroes of Peace tales prize?
Right. “These tales prize quiet courage over battle.”Not quite. “These tales prize quiet courage over battle.”
Go deeper: the whole of World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls
About 6 h 30 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 88,800 words
- Reading timeAbout 6 h 15 min
Questions about World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls
What is World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls about?
It is a collection of 187 short tales meant to be told aloud in about five minutes each. They range from fairy tales and fables to Bible stories, history, heroes, and short lives of useful people, with a guide to storytelling.
Who was William J. Sly?
Sly was an American writer and educator in moral and religious education who lived in Denver, Colorado. He gathered and condensed these tales after telling most of them to audiences of children, young people, and adults, and he died in 1940.
What is the Ethical Index in this book?
The Ethical Index at the back lists moral ideas such as courage, kindness, honesty, and patience, then points to the chapter and story number that illustrates each one. It helps a parent or teacher quickly find a fitting tale.
Are these stories meant to be read or told aloud?
They are written to be told. Sly advises reading a tale a couple of times, picturing it, and then telling it in your own words. The short, direct form also reads well aloud from the page.
What ages are the stories for?
Each chapter names an age range. Fairy tales and fables suit ages three to six or nine, favorites and Bible stories ages six to twelve, and the heroes and short lives reach older children and young people up to eighteen.
Cite this edition
Sly, William James. World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/world-stories-retold-for-modern-boys-and-girls.
Sly, W. J. (2026). World stories retold for modern boys and girls. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/world-stories-retold-for-modern-boys-and-girls
Sly, William James. World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/world-stories-retold-for-modern-boys-and-girls.
@book{sly2026world,
author = {Sly, William James},
title = {World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/world-stories-retold-for-modern-boys-and-girls}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of World Stories Retold for Modern Boys and Girls, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
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