Gilgamesh the Hero [School & Library Binding]

Geraldine McCaughrean (Author), David Parkins (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

This is one of the oldest stories in the world, and its about many things that still matter to us today: friendship, fame, courage, happiness. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are friends - best friends. Together they can work wonders, fight monsters, brave earthquakes, travel the world! But waiting in the dark is the one enemy they can never overcome. Retold by award-winning author Geraldine McCaughrean, and illustrated with great power by David Parkins, Gilgamesh the Hero is a story that will linger in the imagination long after the book has been put down.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-Long before Homer, Sumerians were creatively tackling the human condition. Their epic, preserved by other Near Eastern cultures, focuses especially on themes of friendship and mortality. Gilgamesh is overactive and oversexed (McCaughrean handles this, and a later seduction scene, discreetly), and his status affords plenty of opportunities to act out. The gods balance his personality by matching him (jaded, cultured) with Enkidu (innocent, wild). The pair finds socially constructive outlets-and then Enkidu dies. Gilgamesh suddenly understands his own vulnerability, and sets out to seek immortality. His journey echoes in the Odyssey and in the biblical flood story. McCaughrean's retelling is superb. Faithful to the fragmentary originals, her adaptation adds inspired details, similes, dialogue, and description. It enriches readers' understanding without violating the source. Unlike David Ferry's spare, poetic redaction in Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse (Farrar, 1992), McCaughrean grippingly and tenderly elaborates. Her language is both vernacular and classic, her pace unslacking, her characterizations deft. This volume will add luster to the author's glittering reputation. The illustrations recall Charles Keeping's bold style; Parkins's thick, dark line gains energy from its rough, unfinished edges. Unframed vignettes seem to emerge out of the text; full-page pictures spill over to the facing page. The somber palette evokes the desert setting, and the style is slightly archaic and wholly vigorous. It would be a pity if the single instance of a bare bottom in one vignette discouraged purchase: this fabulous introduction to the epic tradition deserves a wide readership.
Patricia D. Lothrop, St. George's School, Newport, RI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-9. McCaughrean employs her supple style in this version of the oldest recorded story in the world. Gilgamesh was a real king around 3000 B.C.E. in the Sumerian city of Uruk (now in Iraq). This tale, originally engraved on 12 stone tablets whose thousands of pieces are still studied and puzzled over, is rendered with simplicity and power. Gilgamesh finds a kindred spirit in Enkidu, the wild man, and the two of them together conquer the guardian of the forest and the bull of heaven. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh overwhelmed with the loss and terror of his own dying, goes on a long quest to find the secret of everlasting life, undergoing many trials and learning lessons. He hears the story of the flood--not much different from the biblical version. Siduri the innkeeper tells Gilgamesh the joys of life: "Children. That's the shape of happiness . . . Cherries in bed . . . Someone to sit with in the shade." Parkins' muscular images, inspired by Assyrian art and reminiscent of Leonard Fisher's art, are a fine foil for the text, which begs to be read aloud. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• School & Library Binding: 96 pages
• Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802852629
• ISBN-13: 978-0802852625
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

It's 30 years now since I first got published, and 50 since I found out how writing let me step outside my little, everyday world and go wherever I chose - way back in Time, to far distant shores, towards my own, home-made happy ending. Not that all my books are an easy ride. I write adventure, first and foremost, because that's what I enjoyed reading as a child. But since I have published over 150 books now, there are all manner of books in among that number - gorgeously illustated picture books, easy readers, prize winners, teenage books and five adult novels.
The White Darkness won the Printz Award in the USA, which, for as Englishwoman, was the most amazing, startling thrill.
Then there was Peter Pan in Scarlet - official sequel to J M Barrie's Peter Pan, written on behalf of Great Ormond Street Hopsital for Sick Children. I won the chance to write that in a worldwide competition, and because Peter Pan is loved everywhere, my book sold worldwide too. I can't say I expected that when, as a child, I dreamed of being like my older brother and getting a book published one day.
These days I have a husband (who's good at continuity and spelling) and a daughter who is an excellent editor. But she's at the Royal Academy of Dramtic Art now, studying to become an actor. So, naturally, I have turned my hand to writing plays. (So many actors, so few plays!)
My Mum told me, "Never boil your cabbages twice, dear," which was her way of saying, "Don't repeat yourself." So I have tried never to write the same book twice. You'll find all my novels quite different from one another. I have also done lots of retellings of myth, legend, folk and fairy tales, and adapted indigestible classics such as El Cid, the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Moby Dick, Shakespeare and the Pilgrim's Progress.
Something for everyone, you see, my dear young, not-so-young, eccentric, middle-of-the-road, poetical, sad, cheerful, timid or reckless reader.
All they have in common is that they all contain words. If you are allergic to words, you'd best not open the covers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh for students, February 25, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gilgamesh the Hero (School & Library Binding)

We believe Gilgamesh was a historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Eurphrates in what is now Iraq, who lives around 2700 B.C.E. "The Epic of Gilgamesh" is the oldest recorded story in the world, having been originally carved on twelve stone tablets, which have broken apart in the past four thousand years. These twelve tablets, written in the Akkadian language by an author named Shin-eqi-unninni, were found in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria (668-627 B.C.E.) at Nineveh (the library was destroyed by the Persians).

In "Gilgamesh the Hero," Geraldine McCaughrean creates a free adaptation from a variety of translations of those tablets. Each chapter reflects what is found on one of the twelve tablets (the order of which is still open to interpretation). Young readers will learn over how Gilgaemsh, the hero who saw all, became friends with Enkidu the wild man, slays the Bull of Heaven, survived the Great Flood, and seeks the secret of immortality. The chief narrative thread is the friendship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and how the latter's death teaches Gilgamesh to be a kinder, better ruler who "walked through darkness and so glimpsed the light."

McCaughrean is able to have it both ways with her retelling of these ancient myths. She maintains the classic nature of the epic while telling the story in a way that makes the ancient story accessible to young readers in today's world. The illustrations by David Parkins are in this same mode, complementing the stories nicely. In retelling the story, McCaughrean makes the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu the backbone of the story, as it should be,

While the classical mythology of the Greeks and Romans continues to attract the most attention, "Gilgamesh the Hero" makes the necessary argument for remembering these ancient stories as well. Asking young students to compare and contrast the epic of Gilgamesh with the Twelve Labors of Hercules or Jason and the Quest for the Golden Fleece would certainly be a worthwhile classroom activity for a unit on myth. Comparative mythology is becoming the approach taken in classrooms more often today, and "Gilgaemsh the Hero" reminds us that we can look backwards from Greek mythology as well as forward to find stories from other cultures to learn about.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gilgamesh shines through, January 20, 2006

By 

Edward Hume (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gilgamesh the Hero (School & Library Binding)

I am grateful to Ms. McCaughrean for her distillation of this story. I have been reading various translations and a couple of retellings of the Gilgamesh story for the past thirty years or so, always enjoying the story but always with a sense that I was missing something. Finally, with this retelling I "get it." The elements of the story finally fall into place. Excellent.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Introduction to An Ancient Story, October 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Gilgamesh the Hero (School & Library Binding)

This is a beautifully written version (with illustrations that really capture the ancient ambience of the story) of the oldest written story in the world. It deals with the themes common to all great literature (friendship, mortality, aspirations, love) in a way that makes sense to young people. The struggles and achievements of Gilgamesh, an ancient Sumerian king, illustrate the enduring concerns of mankind over time and lend perspective to man's search for meaning today.

This is also a wonderful read-aloud book that would make a great introduction to a unit on philosophy, comparative religion or humanities for the home-schooling parent. My children (11 and 12) loved this book as much as I did.