The Story Performance Handbook provides specific, detailed information to help adults develop basic skills in reading aloud, mediated storytelling, and storytelling. Organized sequentially, each chapter moves the reader from the easiest (reading aloud picture books) to the most difficult (creating your own stories for telling) storytelling experience, cumulatively building story performance skill in selecting, preparing, and delivering stories and poetry to audiences. This structure allows individuals to begin reading at various points depending on their prior experience with story performance.

The text includes several features that make learning to perform stories and poetry easy to understand and manage:
* Explicit, thorough advice avoids confusion, such as how to select, prepare, and deliver stories and poetry via reading aloud, mediated storytelling, and storytelling.
* The sequential chapter organization, progressing from easiest to most difficult, and Developmental and Culminating Activities at the end of each skill chapter, enable this text to be used either independently or in conjunction with courses or workshops in story performance.
* Unique among story performance texts, instruction is based not only on the author's own extensive experience but also on empirical research related to teaching adults to tell stories.
* Specific information is easily located throughout the text: Processes are presented in bold type, numbered sequentially and, at the end of specific chapters, skill building activities are provided. Figures (which provide additional detailed information) are boxed. Examples of processes are highlighted with background shading.