Sirens and Sea Monsters

I never imagined The Odyssey could be so beautifully retold for children. Osborne manages to stick faithfully to the story (leaving out, of course, the naughty bits). Odysseus's ordeal comes vibrantly to life under Osborne's masterful pen. I, my 10 year old daughter, and my 7 year old son all loved this series. As a homeschooling mom striving to give my kids a liberal arts education, I get such a glow of satisfaction when I hear them make reference to Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, and Polyphemus months after we put the book down. I even recommended this series of 6 books to my husband, who has never read The Odyssey, as a way to get an excellent "Cliff's Notes" version of the classic story in one entertaining evening. Can't recommend highly enough!

While Mary Pope Osborne is best known for her Magic Tree House series, this set of books chronicling the Odyssey is an appropriate and well written introduction for young readers. Included in each book in the set is a concise prologue introducing Homer's Odyssey, along with a summary of Greek Gods & Goddesses (including illustrations, brief descriptions and an invaluable pronunciation guide). While I ordered the set to read aloud to my six year old, I have found that despite the lack of illustrations (with the exception of the Gods/Goddesses) my four year old son is captivated by the stories as well. I highly recommend this series to anyone interested in introducing their children to this classic.

The Odyssey is about this man named Odysseus and his adventure to the island of the Sun God. It's based on the original book, Homer's Odyssey. He's got to go through some amazing things to get to the Sun God. He also has to keep his men safe, plus he has to deal with his men, because they want to slay and eat the cattle of the sun god. Odysseus had to fight 3 monsters on his way to the Sun God. He had to fight the Charybidis, which is a giant whirlpool. He has to fight the three-headed monster that killed six of his men. The last thing he had to fight was the lady merchants that led you to their island and killed you or you drowned on the way before you got there. Then Odysseus got to the land of the Sun God and he told his men that if they slayed and ate the cattle that the sun god owned their families would be cursed. Then when he goes to sleep they eat the cattle because they haven't eaten for a very long time. The reason that I recommend this book is because it's a fun book for all ages and it is a pretty fast read. Another reason I recommend this book is because it's a fast paced historic fiction story. The last reason I recommend this book is because if you've read the other Mary Pope Osborn books, like the Magic Tree House books, you'll love it.

I use this book for an ESL English class. It's much more comprehensible than reading the poetic version. The kids seem to enjoy it, where I think they would be lost with the poetic translation in our textbook. All of the students in this class are low level English speakers, so this gives them something interesting to read without a huge comprehension challenge.

We read all these books in the series together as a family. This one was our favorite. My boys couldn't wait for bedtime so they could hear what would happen next in the story. These books offer enough action to keep one's interest, young and old. I recommend all the books in the series. We can't wait for #6!