This fall, I’m starting a children’s radio show. I asked for permission to adapt the book The Phantom Tollbooth into that format, and was turned down.
Now I’m looking for stuff in the public domain. The age range is from about 5 to about 8 or 9. Basically, I’m looking for things that are adaptable into a spoken-word and sound-effect kinda thing. (Think old-time radio serials and you’ve got the basic idea.)
Any suggestions?
Robin
Find collections of Japanese or Chinese folktales.
They’d be unfamiliar to most children, & you’d have that whole multicultural/edutainment thing going.
Dover Books is all about public domain, and they do a lot in classic kidlit: doverpublications.com
Books published before 1923 are in the public domain, so many older classics are available for free.
Project Gutenberg is probably the largest online collection of public domain texts. They have dozens if not hundreds of children’s classics up.
Bosda, the English translations of those folktales are probably still under copyright, so they may not be a good choice.
Check out www.blackmask.com, and click on their heading “For Boys and Girls.”