Customer Reviews

A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys (Iona and Peter Opie Library of Children's Literature)

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

 

 

This affordably priced quality paperback edition of familiar tales from Greek mythology is truly a treasure and a wonderful way to enjoy these timeless stories or to introduce them to young people. One of America's greatest writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote these versions of stories about Pandora, Medusa, Hercules, King Midas and the host of gods and goddesses that make up the Greek pantheon. The language is evocative and colorful yet easily understandable. You needn't worry if your high school teacher's assigned reading of "The Scarlet Letter" bored you to tears, as this collection of stories is filled with exciting adventures and vivid characters. I love the beautiful illustrations in this book. They were done by Walter Crane, one of the most popular illustrators of children's books in the late 19th century. The paintings are in the Pre-Raphaelite style in full color. The decorations at the beginning of each chapter are filled with Victorian charm and make this new editon seem like a well-loved antique. There are many excellent anthologies of the Greek myths on the market but rarely will you find one that utilizes such substantial talents as those employed by Hawthorne and Crane or that so thoroughly draw the reader in to the romantic and turbulent world of heroes, maidens and the capricious deities who stir their fates. I highly recommend this book. It is a classic that will enrich the mind and heart of a young reader and open the way for further discovery.

This is a remarkable book, with rich detail in both illustration and prose. Particularly wonderful for reading aloud together, my sons enjoyed this book through several years, and asked for the stories often.

This book belongs to the genre category of myths and legends. Out of a possible five stars I would rate this book a four because the content is very dense, and at times a bit hard to understand. But still, the book was very gripping. The author's vocabulary is vast, and some of the words he used I had never heard. Some of the sentences are phrased abnormally too. The sentences are considerably lengthy.

This book is full of tales such as "The Golden Touch," "Three Golden Apples," "The Paradise of Children," "The Gorgon's Head," and others. Since the stories were written in the 1800's the writing style is much different than the current modern day style.

The storyteller, Eustace Bright, is in the town of Tangle Wood with all of his nieces and nephews, at their family house. The kids always request a story from their uncle Eustace, and then he would proceed to tell a wonderful story filled with fantasy characters, and of course; there was always an obvious moral to each tale.

I enjoyed this book, and each story within it. The characters in the stories had great personalities, which made the book a thrill to read. It's full of imaginary settings, and magical things.

Eustace Bright told many stories of heroes such as Hercules, on quests. Along the way, they would meet up with all sorts of creatures. For instance in the tale, "The Three Golden Apples" Hercules comes across a man, who has the burden of holding the sky upon his shoulders.

Over all I would recommend this book. Especially to those who enjoy fairytales and fantasy stories. However, like I said, the book can be a quite hard to understand at times. This is a miraculous book, filled with extraordinary characters.