
Delacorte Books for Young Readers - Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Release date: 1992-03-01
Paperback
Author: Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
Juvenile Fiction, Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction, Children: Grades 4-6, Legends, Myths, & Fables - Greek & Roman, Juvenile Fiction / Legends, Myths, Fables / Greek & Roman




I have had this book over 10 years and it is wonderful. It introduced me to mythology and hooked me from the beginning. I remember spending much time studying the pictures which are bright and detailed. Beyond being entertaining, the stories helped to prepare me for the frequent references to greek mythology in all types of art.
Our daughter received this book when she was about three, we started reading it to her one night, and for the next five years at least we continued reading and re-reading through it every night. Talk about an early start on the great Greek Myths! To this day I'm sure Athena's owl is still flapping and hooting about in her brain. Really, this was the best possible way for our kids to discover and imbibe these great god and goddess, hero and heroine legends. Each tale is told in a straightforward page or two with one or two unpretentious but memorable color illustrations. That treatment worked well because the stories themselves are so plainly marvelous. Our son liked them too for quite a while, but then moved on to the D'Aulaire book of the Norse myths, and ultimately he was attracted more to non-fiction than to fiction. I hope my own writing is influenced by the years we spent with the D'Aulaires. Take Me With You When You Go
When I was only a few years old, the first book my father ever read to me from and that I in turn read from was D'aulaires Book of Greek Myths, and that has proven to be the spark that kindled my fascination with human societies. My single greatest passion is the chronology of human history, which was stirred in me at a very young age by this book, without which I cannot even imagine the difference in my life. I never would have read the Iliad and the Odyssey, which spurred me into the Aeneid, which in turn created a desire to learn more of factual Greece and Rome (respectively), which then broadened my interests towards the civilations of Mesopotamian antiquity, eventually encompassing the whole world. I am now an undergraduate student of anthropology at one of the best liberal arts colleges in the country, and my life would never have been the same without the advent of this book.