Classic Myths to Read Aloud: The Great Stories of Greek and Roman Mythology, Specially Arranged for Children Five and Up by an Educational Expert

by William F. Russell

Presents the essential Greek and Roman myths that form the basis of our cultural literary heritage.

Genres: Mythology, Childrens, History, Classics, Short Stories, Parenting, Reference

272 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1988

Reviews

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: I first read this book to my eldest son approx. ten years ago and it became my favourite retelling of myths to read aloud to children. I had always planned to read it to my 9yo and I've been reading a story a day to him every M-F.

Comments: This is the best book of Greek and Roman myths especially written for reading aloud to children that I have come across and we've read a lot in our household. This book is written in the storyteller format. Each story starts with a brief synopsis for the storyteller and a list of words with phonetic pronunciations. These words also are shown with phonetic pronunciations the first time they appear in the story. After each story is a short paragraph or two called "A Few Words More" which is for the benefit of the storyteller and tells the Greek or Latin roots or word history of certain words that come into play in this particular story. This is not meant to be read aloud but gives the storyteller options to weave them into a post story discussion if time permits.

The book is divided into two sections. Part I is recommended for ages 5 and up and concentrates on the well known Greek Myths such as Athena, Echo, Marathon, Damocles, Pegasus, Io, Orpheus, Pygmalion, Theseus and Jason. Part II is recommended for ages 9 and up and primarily tells in chapters three tales, The Trojan War, Ulysses and Aeneas.

Do not let the age recommendations fool you into thinking this is a baby book. Five year olds listening to these stories are five years old who have grown up on Pinocchio, Peter Pan and Hans Christian Andersen (the originals, not Disney-fied versions). The vocabulary used right from the beginning is rich literature, as you would expect to find in Hawthorne's own tales of the myths. The violence of the original tales remains, in the first half perhaps the blood is not quite so red yet gruesome death does abound and in Part II the blood and gore flow freely. The only 'watering down' found in these tales is in the s*xual aspects of the original tales. Words like 'lover', 'friend' 'maid' and 'met' are used instead of the actual s*xual situations that occur when reading from original Greek sources.

I'm being quite blunt here as I do want readers to beware that these are very real renditions and don't expect a tenderhearted Teletubbies five-year-old to have a cutesy fun time with these tales. But then, this is exactly why I love this book so much. When your child is ready to really meet the Greek Myths this is my recommended book to start with. We've met some of these tales in our reading before but these versions really bring out the glory of the Greeks' mythology and the final Trojan War and Ulysses chapters are amazingly well told for this age group. The author even makes Aeneas (in a brief retelling) exciting.

I sold my original copy of this book and had to buy another copy to read it this time. You can bet I'll be keeping my copy now and saving it for the day I (hopefully) can read it to my grandkids.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on mythology! Ages 10+ is probably ideal for this book. No pictures. Just straight storytelling. After each story, there is a paragraph drawing out which English words we’ve derived from that myth and how their meanings are tied to the Latin or Greek words. I hope to reread this book to my kids years from now as a review. Recommended.

[Willow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this; not only the stories, but the format and extra helps along the way. Having a recurring pronunciation guide was highly beneficial!

We read this aloud and as a book individually assigned in high school. I appreciate that it is divided by age groups of listeners; the myths in the first half of the book are written to be appropriate for ages 5 & up, and the last half, 8 & up. However, this does NOT mean that it is a juvenile text or meant only for young children. This is a book that can span all the ages and which (to reiterate) I very, very much enjoyed as an adult, reading for myself.

Note: depending on your standards and the sensitivity of your child/ren, it may or may not be one to read at the ages indicated, but perhaps saved for a few years later. In our family, we came late to the party with our first two because of a few factors including sensitivity and feeling deeply all the sad things. It's okay to wait a while. Of course, pre-reading is a great option so you have a better inkling of whether your kids could handle it.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun, and good for introducing kids to the basics of the “canon of western civilization,” but he definitely makes some odd word choices in his writing.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our family worked through this book sloooowly as a read-aloud. It was great but a very challenging book for younger children. However, we all really loved it! We often looked up artwork online of the different myths since there are no pictures in this book. It was interesting to see how different artists have depicted the various myths in their work.

[Jessica Hageman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good intro to adults who have little to no knowledge of the classic myths. I can definitely see how it would be valuable as a read-aloud for (older) children. The in-text pronunciation guides were helpful, and the little segments at the end of each chapter relating a name or word in the story to a common phrase or word in English was very interesting.

[Διόνυσος Ελευθέριος · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of myths taken from the ancient Greek and Roman world is an ideal collection to be either read to, or even by, young children. Unlike some mythology adaptations, the stories in Classic Myths to Read Aloud are surprisingly faithful to their originals (with the one exception of favoring Roman names in wholly Greek stories). If you endeavor to supply your children with a classical education—to the degree that that is even possible in today's most modern world—then you will find this book to be very helpful. I greatly enjoyed reading all of these stories to my children over the course of several months, and highly recommend it.

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank goodness for this guide, otherwise I'd never know how to pronounce any of these characters at bedtime for going on three years. Great explanations given for each selection. This book has fostered a love of Greek mythology in one of our girls especially, and even inspired their dad to tackle the Iliad and the Odyssey!

[Natasha]

I read most of this to my daughters but didn't quite make it to the end with them, so I read the last two chunks of stories to myself.
I'm glad other parents had better luck reading these to their kids. I wonder how many of the positive reviews are from parents of boys, because wow did my girls not connect with these at all. I enjoyed reading them (honestly, I think at this point I just like spending time with my children in general) and I think it's good I "exposed" them to this material, but by the end of our time with this book together we were just kinda making fun of the predictability of the stories. It was fun to see the mortals make the same mistake of pissing off a god or goddess, and the deities being petty or jerks (or both) and then overreacting.
But, yeah, the stories were all about men doing stuff. If the story was about a woman, it's probably because she's super pretty, and that always means bad news for her. It's never good. It's never "she was so good-looking they decided her thoughts were probably worth hearing." And the rare times a woman actually did something it was to help the guy reach his goal.
Lest you take what I'm saying the wrong way. I'm not saying that these myths are "bad" because of the above, or trying to "cancel" them, but it's something you ought to be aware of before you share it with your kids, especially if after a dozen stories they keep seeing themselves reflected as objects rather than subjects.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was read chapter by chapter by me to my six year old before bed. He asked many questions about the heroes and exclaimed at what he felt was an unjust fate for Arachne and the sadness Aeneas must have felt as he fled Troy. But at the end of each chapter, before we said good night, I could tell by the look in his eyes that these stories made him curious and kept him thinking long after I finished reading to him.

I love this book for that.

There are no pictures to grab a child's visual attention. The way that the stories are are organized is recommended age groups, with the stories geared towards a younger readership at the beginning and progressing further to stories involving the battle of Troy towards the end. I really enjoyed the way this book was structured and the way you could read most of the stories completely as a chapter. The chapters are very good lengths, in my opinion.

Overall I recommend this book for any guardian to read to their children!

[Joel Everett · Rating 5 out of 5]

My family and I - including our 5 and 6 year old - thoroughly enjoyed this collection of tales during lunchtime. The "A Few Words More" section at the end of each adapted myth was delightful and educational. We highly recommend it as a great way to get a jump start on Classical Mythology and to prepare for later classical allusions used in literature. (i.e. Shakespeare among others)

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful book that covers well known and more obscure myths with assistance on pronunciation and in manageable chunks more friendly to the unversed classicist than the original texts and their often cumbersome translations. Still seems a little complex for the young readers, but for a parent reading aloud, it should be nice and straight forward.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty decent book, with faithful retellings from mythology in lengths that are good for reading aloud -- as advertised in the title. I found the pronunciation guides in the middle of the text to be annoying, but I'm not sad to have this one.

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book layout makes it easy to use as each myth contains a synopsis of the tale, approximate reading time, vocabulary and pronunciation guide. It is a good supplement to studying Greek and Roman myths.

[Jillian English · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is great for at-night reading before you go to bed and you don't ndeed to have a lot of time to finish a story because the storys are short but not too short. and you also don't need too be religious to read these because they're myths and just plain fun to read!

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read-aloud selections from Classical (Greek and Roman) myth for young kids. Good stuff, for the most part, but the book is not consistent about Greek and Latin names for the same gods (even within the same story), which I found annoying . . .

[Sonja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read aloud for the kids!

[vespera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me likey <3

[Seobin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to learn the origins of numerous vocabularies in the english language but in some ways to edited to be an accurate collection of myths- but probably for the young age group of the book.

[Daniel Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loads of good stories...

[Rebecca Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used this with my nine-year old for read-aloud and written narration work. I've actually used it with all my children now because, while not the best set of myths I've ever encountered, it is perfect for upper elementary school children and perfectly segmented for reading aloud.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read aloud! Before each myth is a short intro with a brief summary, pronunciations and vocabulary, and an estimate on how long each will take to read. At the end of each myth there's a section that shows how words and phrases we use today tie back into what was just read. We read these over the course of a year. The book says that they are appropriate for ages 5 and up, but we started at 8 years old, and interest definitely peaked more toward the end of the book. Some of these are a bit intense; I might hesitate to read them to a 5 year old but of course each child is different in what they are able to process and at what age. When I was a kid Greek and Roman mythology didn't capture my attention, but now I'm actually excited to look up the Illiad and the Odyssey to read next!

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy reading this to my students in my mythology elective and they like it too!! Def using it when I have kiddos.

[Melissa Swearingen · Rating 5 out of 5]

We really enjoyed reading these stories!!! They’re well told and nice summaries of many of the famous Greek and Roman tales. Great for read aloud to young students.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once upon a time, there was no such thing as television.

After the horror subsided, and my 6-year old son processed the notion that there was life before Diego, Thomas the Tank Engine and The Backyardigans, I began to explain about how children listened to stories, specifically fables and mythology. And that was his introduction to this book.

This is a GREAT book for parents to introduce their children to the world of mythology. As the author says,

"The great myths...are valuable in their own right, not just because they provide the mental 'hooks,' or shemata, that enable us to gather and understand new material. These myths have survived through the centuries because they had something important to say, and because people of widely disparate ages and cultures have found in these tales lessons and inspiration for their own lives."

The author recommends practicing and reading each story alone BEFORE reading them aloud to your child, and that for the most part, do NOT make good bedtime stories. He's right; very few of the stories have a traditional happy ending, and most of them are designed to elicit follow-up questions - the last thing you need if you're trying to get your child to go to sleep. But they are excellent weekend stories, or for that "20 minutes a day" reading block of time after school.

One of the other things that I really liked about this book was that the author carefully sets up each story for the parent. He has:
* an "about the story" brief synopsis,
* the approximate reading time for each story (the shorter stories run 6-12 minutes, and the longer ones 15-20 minutes),
* a vocabulary and pronunciation guide (for example, Athena is pronounced [uth-EE-nuh:], and
* follow up discussion for after the story (for example, with the story that describes how Athens got its name, you can point out Athens on a map, explain how Poseidon's trident means "three teeth", and how "tri" and "dent" for the basis for so many modern words like tricycle, triangle, dentist, etc.)
(Note: I'd also add to make certain to let your child know that it's okay to interrupt the story if they don't understand something or have any questions)

My son is really enjoying the book so far, and he's also realizing that his television shows actually reference these stories (The Backyardigans have an episode about gods who live on mountains, some of the Thomas the Tank engines have gods' names, etc.).

[Carissa Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up loving Greek mythology, and all the Greek Gods. Classic Myths to Read Aloud by William F. Russell is one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. It presents the most famous and “need to know” Greek and Roman myths that contributed to the Greek and Roman polytheistic religion. Even though this book may seem like a book only for the younger audience, I assure you it isn’t. Since the myths are authentic, they don’t particularly leave out the more disturbing parts; but William F. Russell does a terrific job in censoring it.
The best part about this book (other than the actual writing), is that the stories are kept short. Also, before every story it shows you the approximate reading time which ranges from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. It shows you how to pronounce all the Greek and Roman names. And the most helpful part is that it explains the confusing parts of the myth in more detail at the end. My personal favorite since I was young was the story involving Medusa and Perseus. In this particular book, the story is named “Perseus and the Gorgon’s Head”, I recommend this story, although it may be a little gruesome and scary for the younger kids.
Overall, this book is a really good introduction to Greek and Roman Myths. And although the title says it’s for kids, don’t let it fool you! I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to know more about Greek and Roman mythology and the Greek and Roman Gods.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book.

It takes a number of the Greek and Roman myths and shortens them to be read aloud to the little ones. The author does this without harming the story in any way. After reading many books on the ancient myths, I found these to be the best written. And he even included pronounciation helps.

That being said, there are no pictures. That's both good and bad. It forces them to listen carefully and use their imagination. But my very littlest ones get all cranky.

A large section of this book deals with the Trojan war and journey of Odysseus. We very briefly touched on that with a picture book and will deal with it more indepth in middle school. But I will use Sutcliff's books for that.

I think this has an excellent, but limited, use in the study of ancient cultures.

[Emily Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a fan of greek and/or roman mythology, then i'm pretty sure you will like this book. This book is all about retelling the classic greek myths, some of which you have probably heard, and some you may have not. I like this book because it keeps true to the original myths, but also puts them in a format where they can be read aloud to any people of any age. Some of the greatest and most epic poems in history are retold in this book, like the Illiad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid. I loved this book, and I could not put it down. I guarentee that even if you are not a fan of greek mythology, you will like reading about the epic battles and lessons learned through storytelling of these ancient myths, and I really recommend it. Whenever I read this book, I feel like i'm reading history, yet who knew history was fun to read?

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

My oldest son and I are reading this book. I like that we can read it out loud or he can read it independently. It is geared to read to multiple ages, which works great for this homeschool mom. in addition to reading these classic myths, I also like that each story gives a brief summary, pronunciation guide, estimated reading time, and a section explaining Greek root words. It's a wonderful book and reading tool!

[M L · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm. These are indeed classic myths directed toward young children, but I've ultimately and reluctantly concluded that it may not serve its purpose very well.

The stories include descriptions that are just too challenging for many young children. I used this book with my daughter, but it proved to be a fairly frustrating and unpleasant experience. Ultimately, she and I both agreed that the stories were just too graphic.