A study examined the scripts or schemata--cognitive structures that represent story prototypes--used by African-American children and how they differ from story telling patterns of White middle-class children using a Western, linear "problem solving" story schemata. Samples of oral narratives were collected from 50 African-American children, ages 6-12 years, including personal narratives or "real life" stories and fantasy narratives. A group of African-American graduate students working with a White male researcher analyzed 15 personal narratives. Results indicated that none contained clear problem-solving sequences involving goals, obstacles, attempts to overcome objects, or resolutions typical of Western story schemata nor followed the linear problem-solving format consistently. Findings suggest that a cyclical structure was used in story development which differs from classic problem-solving schemata in the way relations among events and episodes are structured. Future research should be undertaken in the under-studied area of narrative research. (Contains 3 tables of data, 2 figures, and 13 references.) (CR)