11th August 2016, Pavillion Children's Books, 112 pages, Hardback, Review copy
Book summary
This fun book, part of the popular Cool series, is a fascinating
introduction to world mythology, broken up into handy bite-sized chunks.
It covers all the main world mythologies, including Sumerian, Incan,
African, Native American, African, Egyptian, Persian, Hindu, Norse and,
of course, Greek and Roman, including the famous Olympians (Zeus, Hera,
Poseidon and others). It begins with a selection of creation myths from
different cultures (for example the Dreamtime of Aboriginal Australian
mythology) and delves into individual stories from mythology, such as
Perseus meeting Medusa and Pandora's box. It covers fantastical
mythological creatures from the fearsome Manticore from Persian legend
to the modern-day Yeti, plus giants, dragons and the Phoenix. It
explores mythological places like Atlantis and various versions of the
afterlife, from the idyllic Arthurian Avalon to the rather less pleasant
Yomi, the dark and gloomy underworld of Japanese mythology.
Ancient
myths are still relevant to today's society, explaining traditions and
giving lasting moral lessons. But most of all, they're entertaining
adventures that connect us to the past - and this book is the perfect
introduction to how cool mythology really is.
Nayu's thoughts
Do not underestimate this book by it's size. It may be small, but it
is jam packed full of facts about myths! There's vampires, unicorns,
Nessy, and the usual Greek/Roman/Egyptian myths too. It goes into
great detail about famous ancient authors, the necessary facts about
mytical gods and goddesses, it dispells famous myths which aren't at
all true (including the Bermuda Triangle), there is so much crammed
into this book that's a bit bigger than A5 in length but not width. While quite a lot of the myths were familiar to me, there was a fair amount of information which I didn't know
The illustrations are colourful and numerous, without something new
on each page to attract the reader. The only reason it got a lower
grade is because I'm not fond of the illustration style. It's a book
to dip in and out of, perfect if you need to learn about particular
topics, as well as a book to read for a few hours if you love factual
reads (I did as a child).
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