Stories as language teaching and learning materials are valuable resources for language learners. When stories are used in primary English teaching, they can easily lead to various language learning activities. They also provide opportunities for students to practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, and have an important role in integrating the four skills in classrooms. The purpose of present study is to review the discourse organization of stories and characteristics of language use in stories. The advantages of story use as language teaching materials are also discussed. It is not an easy task to choose suitable storybooks since so many of them are available. The study presents several criteria for selecting storybooks such as content, organization, values and attitude, cultural information, language, illustrations, etc. Those criteria can be helpful for finding out appropriate books considering the students’ interest and language ability level. Storytelling is the most central activity of the lesson using a story, and how a story is told is an important factor affecting the students’ understanding. It is recommended to vary the pace, tone and volume of the storyteller’s voice and to use gestures and facial expressions to help convey the meaning. It is also beneficial to encourage the students to take part in the storytelling. Finally, the study introduces various language learning tasks around stories that the teachers can use in classrooms.