Book excerpt: First Published in 2000. Since before modern schooling, before literacy itself, stories have been told in every culture not only as a form of entertainment but also as a means of transmitting values from one generation to the next. Narrative story can be seen as one of the fundamental ways in which the human mind interprets and speculates upon the world and translates lived experience into conceptual understanding. Many good stories of whatever genre that do present themselves as vehicles to develop literacy, whether short stories, picture books, traditional tales, recent or classic novels, will very often present equally exciting possibilities for moral learning. This book seeks to help primary teachers use selected stories not only to develop literacy but also to plan for drama work that can harness the potential for social and moral education, itself an area under increasing attention from central government agencies.