Aubrey Davis

Readings

"In tales people fly through the air on a magic carpet, walk in seven-league boots, build castles overnight; the tales opened up for me a new world where some free and all-fearless power reigned and inspired in me a dream of a better life." — Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky's quote elegantly captures the spirit of the centuries-old stories Aubrey loves to tell and write. Bottomless, spellbinding, often hilarious, these priceless narratives have endured, crossing cultures and generations. These are stories that beg to be heard again and again, their meanings deepening with familiarity and experience.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can pre-ordered through Kids Can Press at 40% discount. Fax 416-960-5437 or email rfreedman@kidscan.com.

Workshops

We are storytelling creatures. At all times and places we have told stories to communicate, understand and learn. It's our nature. Aubrey's workshops build on our innate, often unrecognized abilities to teach participants how to tell, write or learn through oral narrative. He adapts or designs workshops to suit his audience.
Sample workshops: Beginning to tell; Telling Even Better; Old Fruit, New Tree: Storytelling and Creative Writing; Language, Literacy and Higher Order Thinking; Character Education through traditional tales; Stories for Special Needs; Cross-Cultural Tales

Book Sales:

Copies of books can pre-ordered through Kids Can Press at 40% discount. Fax 416-960-5437 or email rfreedman@kidscan.com.

Biography

Aubrey Davis has worked as logger, and raised goats and chickens. He’s sold antiques, books, car parts and beads. While traveling in Europe and North Africa, he discovered traditional folktales and the art of storytelling. He’s performed and conducted storytelling workshops in Canada and the US. A retired teacher with an M. Ed. in psychology and adult education, he taught an oral language program to primary and special needs students.

In 2006 he wrote a screenplay for Sheldon Cohen's animated short, The Three Wishes. His most recent book, Bagels from Benny, won the Sydney Taylor Book Award (2003), National Jewish Book Award (finalist: 2004), Canadian Jewish Book Awards Children’s Literature Prize (2004), and was Society of School Librarians International Book Awards honor book (2004).

OTHER PRESENTATIONS:
Teaching-Stories of Afghanistan: For thousands of years Teaching-Stories have delighted and instructed people in Afghanistan, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Recently children's versions have been introduced to the West, where educators and psychologists have begun to acknowledge their effectiveness in developing thinking skills, perceptions and more. A unique genre of traditional literature, the Teaching-Story, fits with and builds upon our storytelling nature, providing an enormous range of learning opportunities for people of all ages. Aubrey has studied these tales and told them across North America for over 30 years.

As Spiders Spin: Spiders spin webs and people spin tales. Humans are storytelling creatures. Stories have been used for a multitude of purposes all over the world. The best are highly sophisticated teaching tools that function on many levels at once. Aubrey discusses the nature and value of oral narrative together with traditional and contemporary strategies to develop language, literacy, cognition and more in the classroom and beyond. Of course, he’ll spin a few tales himself.

Special Stories: Special Students
Something in the sound, rhythm, rhyme, meaning of the poems and stories captures their attention. The students lean forward in their seats, immersing themselves in the language; learning in their own unique ways. Storytelling is an ancient way of teaching with enormous instructional potential for special needs students. Aubrey peppers his talk with case studies, sample stories and a little theory based on his seventeen years of teaching oral language to special needs and primary children alike.