Customer Reviews

Greek Myths for Young Children

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In this charming retelling of many favorite Greek myths, Heather Amery makes the age-old tales of Persephone, Pygmalion, Ulysses, and others come to life for the young reader. These stories are beautifully illuminated and perfect for reading aloud. The print is also large enough that an early reader can tackle them himself. As a bookstore employee, I enjoy using this book for in-store storytime. I highly reccomend it!

My two boys (7 and 10) where held captive throughout this whole book. They wanted it read to them every night until it was done. The book was easy to understand, with enough pictures for interest, and pronounciation in the back for the greek names. It put all the greek stories together in nice order. We loved it.

This is a great book for the 6 - 10 age group. Younger kids may need some bits explained "Mummy, what's a gorgon?" And older kids will already know these popular myths and can go on to more advanced translations. The illustrations are simple and effective with a different border theme for each story. My only gripe is that not all the characters were drawn, mostly they were but some like Helen and Narcissus weren't. The language is age appropriate and the stories move along at a lively pace. Be warned Heracles and Odysseus will require three or four bedtimes to get through.

It is very hard to find reasonably faithful collections of Greek myths that are accessible, appropriate, and appealing to small children. This is one of the few I've found. The stories are very engagingly told and--after I made powerpoint presentations about the various Greek gods and heroes and such--have definitely captured the attention of my 3-year-old.

The focus here is on Greek heroes and other encounters of humans with gods. There is not so much about the gods themselves, per se. The stories of Heracles (so named in the book), Odysseus, Jason, Theseus, Perseus, and Bellerophon are all here. The "rape of Persephone" and Eros and Psyche are the only god-only myths here. For this reason, Aliki's The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus (Trophy Picture Books) makes a really excellent companion, with very little overlap. In fact, I would recommend reading the latter before this book, to give it all a bit of context.

The writing, the taste with which the stories are retold for young children, and the story selection are all in this book's favor. What keeps me from giving it five stars is that, for the probable target audience, there aren't enough pictures. It looks like a big picture book, but there really aren't more than a handful of pictures per story. The pictures that there are, are pretty good--but even so there are problems, for example, when there was a perfect opportunity to draw the cyclops with one eye, the artist just showed a pair of giant feet. Anyway, if you child won't sit still for a chapter book, he probably won't sit still for this.

I had a few other small quibbles. For instance, I haven't the slightest clue why the author would name Hades "Pluto" when using Greek names for, e.g., Heracles.

If you are not familiar with (or have forgotten) Greek mythology, you should know that it is pretty gruesome sometimes, what with Cronus devouring his children, Heracles made to go insane and killing his children, the heroes becoming heroes by killing all sorts of monsters, etc. This version is pretty tame, but the book does rather matter-of-factly say some pretty horrible things. As a parent you'd have to be comfortable with that and you'd have to know that your kid wouldn't be terribly disturbed by it. Every day for hundreds of years, an eagle comes down and tears out Prometheus' liver? Ouch!

That is not meant as a criticism (although I would have preferred the most gruesome stuff being made less so), but just as a hopefully-helpful warning to sensitive parents.

Good book which introduces the Greek Myths to the younger set. Some stories are a bit violent, but you can skip over those parts when you are reading. My 3 & 4 yr old daughters like to hear about the gods & goddesses and their magical powers.

Do you want to read some stories with monsters and heroes? Then Greek Myths by Heather Amery is the book for you.

First, the stories are exciting. In one story Belleron has to kill a fire-breathing monster that is part lion, part snake, and part goat. In another Heracles has to capure the huge wild boar. Will they succeed?

Second, it teaches what the ancent Greeks believed. "The Gift of Fire" tells how fire came into the world. "Pandora's Box" tells how bad thigs came into the world. "The Story of Arachne" tells how spiders came to be.

I woud recommend this book to anyone who likes exciting stories. You won't have trouble getting into the book, but you will have trouble getting out.

If you have a young child who is interested in Greek myths, but don't like the violent and gruesome illustrations in so many of the other editions, this is the book for you. The colorful pages, with lovely borders, keep your child's attention during the longer stories, and the playful illustrations have lots of color and detail without being too scary or gory. The stories themselves, too, have mediated the violence and do not include lengthy graphic descriptions of fight scenes or death. When Theseus kills the minotaur, for example, we read, "Dodging its massive horns, Theseus struck the Minotaur again and again with his sword. The monster bellowed again, almost deafening Theseus, but he fought on until, at last, the Minotaur sank to the ground and lay still. It was dead." If you compare this with the bloody throat-slitting scene found in most other versions, this is very tame, which I appreciate since my son is only 5. Stories are simply retold, but with lots of detail and attention to the flow of the narrative, and make good bedtime reading.Contains most of the classics, but also some lesser-told tales in the young children's books, like the stories of Arachne and Pygmalion. I previewed all the major anthologies of Greek myths at the library before deciding which one to buy for my son, and this is by far my favorite. Highly recommended.

I'm an EQ coach, and use myths (art, poetry, music and instruction, as well) to help people develop their emotional intelligence. I was fortunate enough to grow up learning myths, and continued to study them in college, as my minor was in Greek. I recently formed a list of books parents could use to help develop their children's EQ, and this book is definitely on it. My grandchild loved it, and I was so happy to find it.

I've been searching for a book on Greek myths that would be simple enough for my 5-year-old, and "Greek Myths for Young Children (Stories for Young Children) fits the bill perfectly. Bound in sturdy hardcover, the book is well-written and ably adapted by author Heather Amery. There is a brief introduction about Greek myths and there are about 16 myths in all:

The Gift of Fire
Pandora's Box
Persephone and the Seasons
The Story of Arachne
The Many Tasks of Heracles
Echo and Narcissus
Daedalus and Icarus
Bellerophon and the Flying Horse
Jason and the Golden Fleece
King Midas
The Adventures of Perseus
The Chariot of the Sun
The Adventures of Odysseus
Theseus and the Minotaur
Pygmalion and his Wife
Eros and Psyche

I liked that there is a guide to pronouncing the Greek names (as found in the book)at the end. The stories are adapted with a younger target audience in mind so details found in the actual full-length myths, such as the minotaur's origins are not explored here (which is a relief!). The reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars is because I felt the book lacked sufficient illustrations. The illustrations are quite simple, not exquisitely detailed as found in some other books on myths, but they are colorful and beautiful. I just felt that there should have been more of them given that this is targeted towards children. Suitable for Grades K-5.

This is a great little book-the mythology is lavishly illustrated, and well recounted. A little too verbose to read aloud, and somewhat violent-though this is true to the mythology. I bought this copy for my six-year old and her attention definitely wandered. More suitable for for an 8-10 year old with good reading skills. I hope my little one will grow into it!