Icarus Was Ridiculous

Baby Aliens #9

by Pamela Butchart, Thomas Flintham (Illustrator)

Izzy LOVES all the stories the Ancient Greeks told! She can't wait to tell her friends about Icarus, who was a TOTAL NUMPTY, and the Trojan Horse, which ended a war and wasn't even REAL! So pull up a plinth and enjoy all the DRAMA of the original Greek myths, as told by Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham, in collaboration with the British Museum.
Now with even more SANDALS!

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Mythology, Middle Grade

107 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 12, 2019

About the author

As a child, Pamela was lucky enough to grow up in a house full of pets and go to a primary school where lots of spooky and weird things happened (well, in her imagination at least). As a student, Pamela’s student jobs included: fishwife, teaching basketball in America, phlebotomist and Artist Liaison for a (really bad) Abba tribute band. Now, when she’s not writing or going out and about meeting readers, Pamela teaches philosophy to teenagers.

Her top selling stories include The Spy Who Loved School Dinners which won the Blue Peter Best Story Award and My Head Teacher is a Vampire Rat which won The Children’s Book Award. Two of her books, Petunia Peri and There’s a Werewolf in My Tent, were shortlisted for the Lollies – the Laugh Out Loud Awards.

Pamela lives in Dundee with her baby boy and their two awesome cats, Bear & Carlos. If she wasn’t working as a writer and a teacher she’d like to open a luxury hotel for stray cats.

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Pamela Butchart's stories, always engaging and a lot of fun. This one is no exception, Izzy retelling four Greek myths in an effort to help her friends and classmates learn valuable lessons about their behaviour. It's a clever way of looking at the relevance of those myths and legends with plenty of humour and entertaining characters.

[Mary Pimbblet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not convinced this really works as a Baby Alien series book. I can see where the author was going, building on her To Wee or not to Wee retelling of Shakespeare plays, but this just felt a bit unnecessary. There are loads of retellings of Greek myths for children, adding modern day ideas into them just seemed to confuse them rather than improve accessibility:
I read this with my eight year old daughter, she’s not familiar with all the myths that are retold here, so she found it interesting. I did find myself having to explain things that were supposed to be there to make the stories funny though, she didn’t really get that they were supposed to be silly and not an actual part of the myth.

[Isobel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book. Interesting & easy to read for earlier readers (lots of pictures), though they may need to be talked through some of the parallels being drawn. For the myth purists (to whom I say, there should be no such thing), you will not like this. It is very much a retelling, using modern slang, changing certain aspects to make it more appealing to kids. You have to want to read something loosely based to assess what was retained, what was changed, and why to like this one.

[Chloe White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun retelling of 4 myths, although they felt breathlessly written if that makes sense. One continuous stream of information.

Showing my age that whenever I read this particular myth my brain says, “Icarus had a sister. She was cool.”

[Sharron Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly school stories with a very endearing lead character. Good intro to the Greek myths in a fun way.

[Flamesparrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great light-hearted way of teaching children some interpretations of Greek myths. Highlight for me was Narcissus's pet .

[Mrs F S Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very loose retelling of 4 Greek myths for younger readers. Great illustrations and loved the inclusion of words in capital letters. Great fun and certainly made me smile.

[Carys · Rating 5 out of 5]

funny. made me laugh, i had learnt of a few of these myths and i enjoyed seeing ( well reading ) them in different. ways :)

[zuzia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5/5⭐

[JurassicRex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it especially when the man got donkey ears.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun take on 4 Greek Myths, which make them approachable for younger audiences.
Parts were a little silly, but overall a nice quick read and a good reminder of the basic myths.

[D E X · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exaptional

[Evie Kilgallon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didt really like this book cause it was little mini books inside

[Joe C · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok book good for greek fans

[~BEE~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a 15 year old who is kinda in a reading slump i found this book refreshing and i enjoyed it

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great way for kids to learn about greek myths. Really quite funny.