Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
This paper, like the research on which it is based, grew out of an interest in the conditions and circumstances which enable children to tell long and involved stories of their own creation. For several years we have been collecting narratives from part-Hawaiian children five to twelve years of age in a variety of circumstances. These include both individual children and self-selected peer groups talking to each other and with one of us around school or in their own neighborhoods (see Watson-Gegeo & Boggs 1977; Watson 1975; Boggs 1972). The description by Sutton-Smith and his collaborators (1975: 82), which parallels some of our experiences, provides a useful introduction to the questions addressed in this paper:
If you keep asking children to make up stories for you and show some delight at the stories they tell; and if you keep coming back and asking for more stories, then the stories get better and better.