Margaret Read MacDonald


Margaret Read MacDonald is an American storyteller, folklorist, and prolific author of children's books. She has published more than 65 books, of stories and about storytelling, which have been translated into many languages. She has performed internationally as a storyteller, and is considered a "master storyteller" and the "grand dame of storytelling". She focuses on creating "tellable" folktale renditions, which enable readers to share folktales with children easily.
Macdonald has been a member of the board of the National Storytelling Association and president of the Children's Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society.

Early life

Margaret Read MacDonald was born in Seymour, Indiana, growing up in a rural Southern Indiana community near the Muscatatuck River. She was a daughter of Murray Read and Mildred Amick Read. Her family was active in the North Vernon Methodist Church, and her mother would recite to the Women's Society of Christian Service and the Eastern Star. Her mother, raised as a farm girl near Scipio, Indiana, read James Whitcomb Riley's poetry at bedtime, instilling rhythms in Margaret's head.

Education

MacDonald attended Indiana University, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology in 1962. She then attended the University of Washington, receiving her Master of Library Science in 1964, and the University of Hawaii, receiving her Master of Education in Early Childhood Education in 1969. She returned to Indiana University to receive her Ph.D. in folklore in 1979. Her thesis became The Storyteller’s Sourcebook: A Title, Subject, and Motif-Index to Folktale Collections for Children. It was listed as an American Library Association outstanding reference source in 1982.

Career

MacDonald combined experience from 35 years as a children's librarian with her degree in folklore to create tellable folktale collections and picture books "so rhythmic and conversational even a first-time storyteller will be successful."
Her folktale picture books, such as Fat Cat and Party Croc! are known for their rhythmic quality and easy readability. Kirkus Review notes the patterned text as contributing to MacDonald's trademark style, and encouraging audience participation.
In 1995-96 MacDonald was a Fulbright Scholar in Mahasarakham, Thailand, working with Wajuppa Tossa. The project encouraged students to learn and continue to use their local dialects, as storytellers, as well as preserving little-known tales by translating them into English. Stories were translated from the local languages into English, refined as tellable stories, and then translated back into the local language and checked for cultural gaffes. MacDonald and Wajuppa developed a co-telling style in which they followed each other line-for-line in two languages.
MacDonald has taught courses in storytelling at the University of Washington and Lesley University.
Since her retirement from librarianship in 2002 she has traveled extensively abroad teaching storytelling techniques and performing. She has recruited tellers to put their countries’ tales into print and edited folktale collections by tellers from Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Saudi Arabia.
As folklorist, MacDonald has interviewed traditional tellers to produce Scipio Storytelling: Talk in a Southern Indiana Community and Ten Traditional Tellers, which features ten storytellers from around the world.
Macdonald has been a member of the American Library Association, Association for Library Service to Children, Children's Literature Association, International Board on Books for Young People, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and Washington Library Association. Macdonald has been a member and president of the board of directors of the Washington State Folklife Council and a member and president of the board of directors of Youth Theatre Northwest. She has been a member of the board of the National Storytelling Association, and president of the Children's Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society.
MacDonald received the National Storytelling Association's Leadership Award in 1998. She received the Talking Leaves Award from the National Storytelling Network in 2001 as "a major influence and force in the literary body of storytelling." MacDonald was chosen for the Outstanding Author and Storyteller Award, 2001-2002 by the Washington Organization for Reading Development, an affiliate of the International Literacy Association.

Family

Margaret Read and her husband James Bruce Macdonald have two daughters, Julie Liana MacDonald Martin and Jennifer Skye MacDonald Whitman. Jen and her husband Nat Whitman also tell stories, as The Whitman Story Sampler. Margaret Read Macdonald currently lives in Des Moines, Washington and spends time in the summer on Guemes Island, Washington where she holds a storyteller's retreat.

Works

Picture books