Ancient Myths The Wooden Horse of Troy

I became familiar with John Malam through his work on the You Wouldn't Want to series. When I realized he'd become a part of a series on mythology, of course I had to explore it. The Wooden Horse of Troy (Ancient Greek Myths)is Malam's retelling of the tale Of Helen of Troy and the Trojan Horse.

If you have read some of Malam's You Wouldn't Want to books you will see the same approach to giving you all the relevant details of the myth, but still shaping it with some humor and fun to keep children engaged in reading the material. This is not a graphic history, but Peter Rutherford's illustrations do help carry the story as they are cartoonish, amusing, demonstrate the emotions of the characters in the myth, and help the reader to connect to the story.

One feature I rather liked in this series is Ask the Storyteller. Each of these provides the reader with a little more insight into background, future actions, motivation for characters actions, and in general helps the reader to understand pieces of the story that aren't directly a part of the myth.

While clearly a picture book, like the You Wouldn't Want to series this book would also be great with older readers who may not have a background in mythology and might not have a high interest. The information is all there, but the illustrations and the format are engaging.

Mythology Resources

After writing about the Percy Jackson series it seemed like a good idea to add some Mythology resources to the blog.

Greek :

Alphabet

Cartoon Myths

Heroes

Monsters

Mythman

Mythology Mystery Review Sheet

Myths and Legends


Myths and Worksheets

Myth Resources

Overthrow of Kronos

Plays

Reader's Theater Plays

Web English Teacher




Norse:

Nordic Gods




Roman:

Roman Gods

The Sea of Monsters

I listened to The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2) while working on various writing and craft projects. It had been a while since I read the book and the audio version held my attention.

Percy Jackson's adventures continue. Camp Half Blood is in trouble. Percy is denied his request to go on a quest to save the camp, but as any reader of the series expects he becomes involved in the effort to retrieve the Golden Fleece regardless of the rules.

Unlike the Alcatraz series, the Percy Jackson series does maintain momentum and quality writing throughout the series. This story continues to move the individual book plot as well as the series plot along at a solid pace. We know more about the Titans, we see a developing relationship with Percy and his father Poseidon, and his relationship with the other half blood heroes.

As a former teacher, one of the things I like about this series is that it is a natural way to generate interest in Greek mythology. Children can read this story without much knowledge about Greek history and come away knowing a bit more about the Greek Gods. However, a clever teacher or parent can use this series to interest students in learning more about Greek myths. While the Greek Gods are given a modern update in this series, it is easy to motivate students to learning more about the casual references to myths that the author leaves in the stories for the reader to explore further on their own.

Free Teaching Resources:

Teaching Guides