Persephone

by Warwick Hutton

A retelling of the ancient Greek myth about the seasons describes how Hades, god of the underworld, kidnaps Persephone, the daughter of the goddess Demeter, to be his wife

Genres: Picture Books, Mythology, Nonfiction, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1994

Reviews

[Lauren Haynie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that this book had wonderful illustrations. I also think that this book had a very good plot and I liked the reason for why the seasons change.

[Laura Oesch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Traditional Literature due to the fact that this is a Greek myth that explains the seasons.
One unique feature of this book is that there are so many different versions of this myth. This one starts out with Hade and explains why he took her. I have read different versions of this myth where it starts off with Demeter and Persephone first. Other versions mention that Hades deliberately tells Persephone that the Pomegranate seeds are fine to eat in the Underworld. This version does not mention this until the end.
There are quite a few words on each page of this book so I think that this book would be good for grades 2-3.
Personally not my favorite version of this myth.

[Sydney Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book i thought that the author gave good explanation on the story Persephone.

[Frankie K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the the illustrations and the details fit in well.

[Shyanna C · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations were good and it was a good book to read. Had a Greek mythology message too.

[Raquel Pilar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hades is a terrible God, person, man.
Damn it. Good to read for students learning Greek mythology and ask maybe "If you were a God, which would you be and what would you do to Hades?"
Hahahaha

[Merri Platt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a retelling of the mythological story of Persephone. Persephone is the loved daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. She lives a very happy life and is protected by her mother. Hades, the god of the underworld, decides he needs a bride. While looking for one, he sees and kidnaps Persephone to become his bride. Persephone hates living in the underworld with Hades and Demeter weeps and cries for her daughter. It causes the harvest to dry up and shrivel away. After the people have wept and cried to Zeus since they are starving, Zeus commands Hades to return Persephone to Demeter. He does return Persephone but before he does he tricks Persephone to eat 6 pomegranate seeds. Once she does that, she is bound to return to Hades for 6 months out of the year since she tasted food in the underworld. That is why we have 6 months of sun and harvest and 6 months of winter and cold. Those sunny days are when Persephone is with her mother and the cold, dark days are when Persephone is with Hades and her mother is mourning her.
I really enjoyed this book and the author retells it simply so that little children can understand and even remember the mythological story of Persephone. The words are pretty big and are easy for children to read. The illustrations are a little simple and not very colorful but I don't know if you would use a lot of color to tell the story of Persephone. I really enjoyed reading this book and found that after I read it, I now remember the story of Persephone. I would recommend any teacher to read this to their class when they are learning about mythology. The author understand the subject matters are really does bring it down to a child's learning level which is hard to do when dealing with mythology. The only issue I had with this book is it probably shouldn't be read to little children like 4-6. Mythology might not be very interesting to little kids but I would definitely read it to children 7+. It is a heavy story so you might needs readers that are more mature.

[Yasmin Gomez Geng]

There are always several books interpreting the Greek and Roman stories. This one uses short paragraphs and dramatic watercolor illustrations to show the reason for why we have seasons.

Persephone is kidnapped by Hades, king of the Underworld, to become his queen. Persephone is very upset and eats six pomegranate seeds without thinking. When Demeter, Persephone's mom, discovers that Hades kidnapped her daughter, she goes straight to Zeus and demands that he bring her back her daughter. The illustrations do a wonderful job in conveying the emotions of the characters to the reader.

Grade: 1st Grade to 2nd Grade
Topic: Greek/Roman stories, Seasons, Nature

[Alan D.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5
¡Me encantó! Siempre me gustó la leyenda de Perséfone y cómo terminó en el Inframundo, verla como libro infantil fue simplemente maravilloso, además de está redactado de forma en que cualquier niño puede leerla; lo único que no me gustó fue lo breve y las ilustraciones.
I loved it! I always liked the legend of Persephone and how she ended in the Underworld, seeing it as a children's book was just wonderful, well worded so that any child can read it; what I just didn't like was how short it was and the illustrations.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

A version of the classic Abduction myth and a fairly blah one at that. The illustrations were "okay" and the writing was "okay" but nothing was "great". This version of the myth isn't too bad, but the ending is pretty dull and anti-climatic. Overall disappointing. I might use this in educating young children about the Greek and Roman myths, but ... only if I had other versions to use in comparison or if it was the only version available.

[Madison Strasburg]

Traditional Literature
retelling on greek myth Persephone, retelling was so-so but I enjoyed the illustrations