Tales From the Odyssey, Volume 3: Return to Ithaca / The Final Battle

Tales from the Odyssey #5-6

by Mary Pope Osborne, James Simmons (Read by), Homer

Mary Pope Osborne concludes the exciting adventures of Odysseus, with two new books, each based on episodes from The Odyssey.

Book Five: Return to ithaca: After years of captivity on Calypso's island, Odysseus finds himself on the shores of yet another strange land. Meanwhile, his wife, Penelope, fears for their son Telemachus. His enemies -- Penelope's unwanted suitors -- plan to ambush and kill him upon his return to find his father. But the family's years of suffering come to an end, as father and son are reunited in a series of startling, strange, and magical events. Odysseus is finally home. And now his revenge beings ...

Book Six: The Final Battle: After struggling against the gods and his fate for more than 20 years, Odysseus has returned to Ithaca at last. But things have changed: his island has been overrun by suitors who clamor for his wife's hand in marriage and plague his son Telemachus. With the help of the grey-eyed goddess Athena, Odysseus and Telemachus must set out to regain control of Ithaca.

Genres: Fantasy

Audio CD

Published October 5, 2004

About the author

Mary Pope Osborne is an American author of children's books and audiobook narrator. She is best known as the author of the Magic Tree House series, which as of 2017 sold more than 134 million copies worldwide. Both the series and Osborne have won awards, including for Osborne's charitable efforts at promoting children's literacy. One of four children, Osborne moved around in her childhood before attending the University of North Carolina. Following college, Osborne traveled before moving to New York City. She somewhat spontaneously began to write, and her first book was published in 1982. She went on to write a variety of other children's and young adult books before starting the Magic Tree House series in 1992. Osborne's sister Natalie Pope Boyce has written several compendium books to the Magic Tree House series, sometimes with Osborne's husband Will Osborne.

Reviews

[Whitney]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I won’t go into too much detail here. My reviews are probably going to be very similar for these three volumes.

These audiobooks are an adaptation of the Odyssey that are geared toward children. The story is PG-13 most of the time, but doesn’t shy away from everything. I truly love Osborne and her ability to take an epic tale like the Odyssey and turn it into a story digestible for kids. Her use of the first person perspective for Odysseus also helps new readers connect with him.

It also helps that Odysseus' return to Ithaca is my favorite part of the Odyssey.

[4.5 stars, audiobook from Audible]
[#27 in 2025 New Reads]

[Karina]

Listened to with the kids. They all stayed engaged. I put these books on my wishlist.

[Linda Manuel]

Easy to read. Covers the end of the Odyssey.

[Heather]

An adaptation of The Odyssey that is geared toward children. It is scrubbed in all of the right places but doesn’t shy away from everything. Particularly compelling is Odysseus’ first person perspective. It helps younger readers connect with this larger-than-life figure.