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.

You Choose Greek Myths The Trojan War

I've become a fan of the You Choose series as a support for history, mythology, and traditional stories studies. I say support because I wouldn't suggest them as books to read at the introduction of a topic, but they are great extension activities when students have had exposure to the subject and wonder what if? Would different choice have created different outcomes? What was this event like for different people living at the same time?

The Trojan War: An Interactive Mythological Adventure (You Choose: Ancient Greek Myths) fits that criteria. It provides students with a great way to explore the Trojan war after they've had some exposure to the topic. It would not be my suggestion for a first book on the topic.

In this volume children can follow the path of Trojan Hero, Theris and Peleus's future son, or that of a Greek hero. Each path requires choices along the route and an understanding of the Trojan War will make the choices more interesting even if one chooses paths that alternate from the original history. Readers can go back and make new choices or follow the path to the end. They can also choose an new path when they reach the end of the first journey following all three paths if they choose to get a full idea of what the event was like for all three characters.