Every storyteller soon discovers the difference between putting a story inside children and trying to extract it with comprehension questions and putting children inside a story and having them act it out. Teachers may experience this as a difference in "difficulty", or in the level of motivation and enthusiasm, or even in the engagement of creativity and imagination, and leave it at that. This book explores the divide more critically and analytically, finding symmetrical and even complementary problems and affordances with both approaches. First, we examine what teachers actually say and do in each approach, using the systemic-functional grammar of M.A.K. Halliday. Secondly, we explore the differences developmentally, using the cultural-historical psychology of L.S. Vygotsky. Thirdly, we explain the differences we find in texts by considering the history of genres from the fable through the plays of Shakespeare. "Inside" and "Outside" the story turn outto be two very different modes...