This paper examines how oral tradition - "verbal arts or oral literature, customs, belief and other institutions, arts including games, as well as musical instruments" - can be used to foster reading on the part of the African child. Research examined written prose, some of it in the Nigerian indigenous language (Yoruba), in an effort to explore linguistic and cultural differences of child authors (ages 7-15) based on the way they tell their stories. Findings suggest that African children can be stimulated to read if they are first told a story; storytelling should be encouraged, the author urges, especially in the primary and lower secondary schools.