Customer Reviews

The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus (Trophy Picture Books)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My 6-yr old neice absolutely loves this book. We had checked it out of the library and now I am purchasing it for her. This serves as a very good introduction to Greek mythology for young kids. It is clearly written and provides interesting vocabulary (that sometimes needs explanation). Our absolute favorite thing about the book is the illustration. The images are beautiful, fanciful, and inspire a person to dream! My neice has a hard time visually what words mean; she likes how there's a large portrait of the god or goddess, then scattered around him or her are little vignettes in pictures illustrating some major events in their lives. She can "read" this book herself and recall the stories. The images truly stick in one's mind.

I've looked at a dozen kids mythology books. Start them out with this one. If they are a bit older and dig mythology, get this for them anyhow. It will help refresh their memory.

The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus is an interesting book. This book explains the origin of the gods and goddesses of Olympus. After reading this book a couple of times you will gain basic knowledge of the Greek gods and goddesses and how they evolved.

Aliki provides excellent illustrations that allow the story to be vividly portrayed. The illustrations relate well with the text and help the reader create a better understanding for the text. Her illustrations are drawn in pencil, then inked and colored with paints and colored pencils.

This book is at about a fifth grade reading level. However, the contents of this book are intended for an older, more mature audience, which leads to some concerns with using the book in the classroom. There are many moral issues in the book, as well as gruesome concepts throughout the book. For example, the ideas of incest are mentioned repeatedly, along with murder. These concepts may be rather difficult to explain to your students within your classroom.

Students who are interested in Greek gods and goddesses would really enjoy this book. However, in order for students to understand this book they need to be at a high independent reading level. The book can get rather confusing the first time around.

This is by the far the best book I have foud that explains the creation according to the Greeks. I have used it in my high school classroom as well as my junior high and it is always a hit. This book contains the origins of the universe starting with mother earth (Gaea) and father sky (Uranos), the birth and the reign of the Titans and the reing of the Olympians Gods when they took over the earth. It aslo gives a great and thorough introduction of each of the 14 Olympian gods that reign upon Olympus. The pictures are amazing. The whole book is a work of art!

It is a beautiful book. I really like the picture of The Birth of Athena. The Athena in it is so cute. It has stuff like Gaea, Cronus and Rhea, Hestia and Zeus, Hades and so much more. You should read about Aphrodite and Eros (Cupid). Buy this book for any child. I am 7 and I love it. Enjoy this wonderful any age book.

This is a wonderful book - geared for children but enjoyable for any age. The book uses straightforward language, so that the reader and listener will not get overwhelmed by complex or archaic terminology. The artwork is just beautiful and will keep the young audience engaged while listening. The book is quite systematic, starting with Gaea and showing the lineages of the Gods, the Titans, etc. By the end of the book, you can look at the last page and identify the 12 Gods who sat on Olympus and a few others to boot. Even adults who have some knowledge of Greek Mythology will appreciate its orderly presentation and the book will help you understand the relationships between the Gods. My only criticism is that pronunciation keys were not provided. This would really help a novice like me (and most children) so as not to butcher their beautiful greek names. Otherwise, I have no criticism at all.

I bought this book for my 5 year old and it hooked her right away. After a brief explanation of "how it all got started", there is approximately one page devoted to each god/goddess and at the top of each page it mentions who the parents are which is great to give a youngster an idea of how all these gods, goddesses and mortals fit together.
The picturess captured her attention and the level of detail is just enough so that she remembers the salient qualities of each character. After having read through this many times, I feel she will be more than ready to handle the next level of detail. If they only had Greek Myth. action figures, she'd be in heaven (or, I guess, Mt. Olympus)!

My son is 3 and he loves this book. The information on the gods is interesting enough to entertain parents reading to a child, and the artwork is fun and colorful.

This is a very useful book. It is hard to find books about ancient Greek myths that are appropriate for the very young set, but this one works. It works especially well as a preparation for reading Heather Amery's Greek Myths for Young Children (Stories for Young Children). Both of these books are easier than D'Aulaire's, which is more like the 5th or 6th grade level, and certainly easier than the classic Edith Hamilton Mythology, which is more appropriate for teens and adults.

The nice thing about Aliki's book is that it introduces the Olympians in a fairly simple and attractive format. There aren't many books that do that. Each god gets a couple pages with a big attractive picture. (Well, your mileage may vary on the pictures, but I found them helpful, anyway, though occasionally confusing--I had to explain to my little boy which part of the story referred to which part of a big picture.)

The text itself is fine. Engaging enough, but not really special; not worth five stars.

The opening pages, covering the creation of the world, the Titans, and the war between the Olympians and the Titans, is very well done. I skipped entirely over the bits where Cronus was shown devouring his children a la the famous Goya painting (well, not as bloody, but too graphic for little kids, for my taste).

I think publishers ought to get on the stick and create a series of well-illustrated, well-told, somewhat softened versions of the ancient Greek myths, for the 1st-3rd grade level. They would sell like hotcakes.

After students (in the small Catholic school where I am librarian) began reading Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1), they returned to the library, asking for a book about the Greek gods. They didn't understand the Greek references. Of course, I could have shown them Edith Hamilton's Mythology, the classic book about the gods. However, I knew students wanted something shorter and simply to the point. That's where "The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus" by the delightfully talented Aliki comes in.

In the first 16 pages Aliki illustrates with bold, vibrant colors the origin of the world, then the unfolding of the war between gods as told through these Greek myths. Brief text explains the story behind the illustrations. Then in pages 17-48 Aliki illustrates and identifies, simply and directly, the stories of each of the new gods led by Zeus.

The pairing of text and illustrations creates an easy and quick comprehension of the story behind each Olympian, making this book a perfect pairing with Riordan's series, The Olympians.

But Aliki's book also serves as a wonderful introduction to Greek myths and the pantheon of the gods and goddesses. Later children can read Greek Myths for Young Children (Stories for Young Children) or D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, both of which give more details at a children's level.

I'm reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series to 3 kids (ages 11 through 6) that didn't have any prior knowledge of the Greek gods and goddesses. I originally checked out D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths from the library. The kids enjoyed looking up the references we found in the Lightening Thief but I felt there was probably a better option for our current (beginning) needs.

The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus works really well as a companion book for the Percy Jackson series. It has beautiful full color illustrations that appeal to the kids. It is organized in a manner that makes it easy for them to find each the god or goddess that's being referenced and provides a good (and fairly simple) overview of Mother Earth/Uranus and then the Titans (Kronus specifically) and then the gods and goddesses.