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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Book Review: A Wonderbook for Girls and Boys by Nathaniel Hawthorne



Book Description:
Thousands of years ago, when monsters roamed the earth and magic rules the world, the Greeks set sail among the islands of the Aegean Sea in search of incredible riches and fantastic adventures...adventures that would become legendary.


-The Gorgons: cruel witches with snakes for hair.
-Midas: everything he touched turned to gold...even people.
-Hercules: the greatest hero of all time.
-Chimaera: part lion, part goat, part snake—but all monster!
-Pegasus: the magical flying horse.

These are only a few of the fabulous heroes and monsters in the collection of classic Greek adventures retold especially for young people by one of the world's greatest authors.
My thoughts:
I'll be the first to admit that Greek mythology just isn't my thing! Last year while working through Ambleside Online's Year 2,  A Wonder Book: For Boys and Girls  by Nathaniel Hawthorne was on the list and I ignored it all year. So when we started this year I finally decided to plunge in our introduction to Greek Mythology with A Wonder Book: For Boys and Girls .


Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Many of these tales I was already familiar with and all were told in a very entertaining and charming way. My kids really enjoyed each tale and it inspired some conversation about how similar some of the tales were to Bible stories. Their favorite parts though were the "Introductions" and the "After the Story"  that were included with each tale. You could not help but enjoy  and laugh at Eustace Bright, the storyteller, and his listener's, Periwinkle, Dandelion, Huckleberry, Squash-Blossom, Milkweed and the others.

Overall, I have to say A Wonder Book: For Boys and Girls  was a good read and a great introduction to Greek mythology. We look forward to reading more of Nathaniel Hawthorne's tales in Tanglewood Tales: For Girls and Boys.

See what other's are reading aloud over at Hope Is the Word.

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad to read this good review of this classic. My girls would probably enjoy this!

    ReplyDelete

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