Monday, June 8, 2009

Greek Mythology Booklist

DS was just a few months shy of turning 5 when he was first introduced to Greek Myths. He was so caught up by the stories that he wrote, actually wrote, out a scrapbook and with lots of maternal help, added illustrations.


With enthusiasm like this, all thoughts of leaving the study of Greek mythology to coincide with our study of Ancient Greek for History were joyfully abandoned.

The following are the books and audiobooks we've enjoyed on Greek Myths and mean to enjoy in the future. Most of these titles, unless otherwise noted, are for young readers/ listeners aged 4 onwards.

Enjoyed/ enjoying now:

The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus by Aliki. DS' first favorite and a wonderful introduction to the topic. This was the book that provided him the inspiration for his scrapbook.

Classic Myths to Read Aloud: The Great Stories of Greek and Roman Mythology, Specially Arranged for Children Five and Up by an Educational Expert by William F. Russell. Our current bedtime read-aloud. Wonderfully written for reading aloud. DS always looks forward to the finale of each chapter where Mr Russell offers explanatory notes on words used and their Greek or Roman roots.

Greek Myths by Jim Weiss. Audiobook narration delivered in this master storyteller's ever-engaging style. We've listened to this over and over and over again.

Mythology (Ologies) by Lady Hestia Evans and Dugald A. Steer(File Mile Press). A veritable cavern of Greek Myth info, pretty illustrations and lots of little pockets of discoveries!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan: The Lightning Thief (Book 1), The Sea of Monsters (Book 2), The Titan's Curse (Book 3), The Battle of the Labyrinth (Book 4) and The Last Olympian (Book 5). The extremely popular (among homeschoolers anyway) adventure series has a slightly simpler reading level than Harry Potter and I must say, is almost as enjoyable.

Books we plan to check out:

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d'Aulaire and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. Hands down one of the most popular Greek Myth for kids books out there. Gorgeous illustrations. Quite text heavy for the younger set but immensely enjoyable as a read aloud. It's always been on my to-read list with DS but we're constantly being side-tracked by other books.

The McElderry Book of Greek Myths by Eric A. Kimmel and Pep Montserrat. Recommended by my pal, the Fiddler. Read her review here. Her recommendations have always been a hit for us so we can't wait to read this!
Favorite Greek Myths by Mary Pope Osborne and Troy Howell

Greek Myths for Young Children (Stories for Young Children) by Heather Amery and Linda Edwards

The Classic Treasury of Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch and Giles Greenfield
Favorite Greek Myths (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) by Bob Blaisdell

Mythological Creatures: A Classical Bestiary by Lynn Curlee
Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin
Atticus the Storyteller's 100 Greek Myths by Lucy Coats
Greek Myths and Legends by Anna Claybourne
Graphic Greek Myths
These seem to be aimed at 9-12 yo:

Websites that may be of interest (please preview):
For Greek Myth-themed craft ideas, see this post.
See this post for info on the National Mythology Exam (NME). And this one on an NME prep course.

11 comments:

  1. Suji -- His illustrations are just fantastic! Real talent here. Sounds like so much fun.

    Amita

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  2. Amita, after reading your comment, I went back and emphasized "lots of maternal help" LOL. He is a talented guy...but perhaps more linguistically than artistically. He spelt lots of the names and longer words on his own at just 5 years old. But he didn't have the motor skills then for detailed drawing. He did help color some of the illustrations though (not pictured here).

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  3. Well, the, YOUR illustrations are just fantastic! I was very struck by them, Suji. Nice job!

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  4. Suji, these aren't books, but my kids (especially the 7 y.o.) are enjoying the Greek Mythology for Students dvds from Schlessinger Media. There are ten of them--including Constellations Myths, The Labors of Heracles, and The Trojan War.

    Thanks for posting. We're studying Ancient Greece right now and hope to see Rome fall by the end of the summer!

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  5. Christina, thank you for the heads up! I'll keep a look out for the dvds at our library.

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  6. Suji - thank you for these lists! My daughter was introduced to mythology when we studied Ancient Egypt, but when we finished that book we moved to Greek myths and haven't looked back. :) This will help us immensely!

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  7. Nonie, aren't the books just so yummy-looking? I hope your daughter loves them :)

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  8. I have to say that one book we're now reading aloud surprised me re: the amount of interest shown in it by my two older kids (7 & 11), and that is The Children's Homer, by Padraic Colum.

    We're slowly making our way through it, and both kids beg for more when I get to the end of a section. The names are fun to try to pronounce!

    The reason I was surprised is because we've tried other books from the History Odyssey list for Level 2 Ancients, and they've been received about as well as a trip to the dentist. But then I haven't made as much of an effort with them, so perhaps I shouldn't sell the rest of the list short.

    Another recent find for us that I literally had to take out of DS (11)'s hands ("Quit reading Greek mythology and do your math!") was Penelope Lively's In Search of a Homeland: the Story of the Aeneid.

    I have a feeling we'll be in Ancient Greece for a while. How about you?

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  9. My 9yo just finished the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and I am struggling to find other book series on greek myth etc..

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  10. I wish there were more series like Percy too :P Thanks for stopping by!

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