The Adventures of Odysseus

I just finished reading this wonderful book to my six-year-old son, who recently became obsessed with Greek mythology after listening to the audiotapes of the D'Aulaires' Greek Mythology. I picked this version because the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, but I soon became equally appreciative of the writing. I needed to do a little bit of explaining to my son, but not too much. The story carried him along, and the retelling was clear enough--poetic without going overboard, with well-structured sentences that expressive oral reading could handle. I actually read the last third of the book while my son was in the emergency room, getting stitches! He didn't even realize that the doctor had begun stitching his head because he was so busy telling him about Odysseus! I highly recommend this book as a read aloud for a child with a good attention span (able to listen to chapter books) who likes adventure stories. My son spent several years obsessed (and I do mean obsessed) with Star Wars, and now he's moved on to Harry Potter--but Greek mythology and particularly this tale have caught his fancy in the same way.

My kids, 8 and 7 year old boys, and I loved this book. The illustrations are wonderful. And it is written in a style that challenged them to listen, but they could definitely understand. Great book!

Though this book retolds the famous 10-year-voyage of Odysseus,it is still adventurous and fascinating. The writing style is quitepoetic, but the phrases are simple enough for elementary school children (upper grades). The writer and the artist didn't forget the virtue to give us information about an ancient map and Immortals and Mortals. Above all, the illustrations are very intriguing. Blue, gold, and earthen colours bring readers to fantastic and imaginative new worlds of adventure. Also the cleverness of including Milon's famous statue into the illustration of the palace of King Alcinous makes me smile. My 11-year-old daughter and I love this book!