It is through storytelling that we teach children to read, write, think and learn. All of us owe our education to storytelling and I don't know what it is that makes people suddenly think storytelling is the new big thing.
Careful though, it is important to distinguish between storytelling about actual figures versus fictional or fantasy figures: Overall, children were more likely to solve the problem when it was told about a real child than when it was told about a fantasy character [1].
