The Odyssey: (An Illustrated Retelling of the Classic Greek Myth for Middle Grade Readers and Kids Ages 8-12)

Wonderfully worded, beautifully designed and suitably illustrated for a mythic tale, this retelling of Odysseus is a suitable for children. The book size is large, page quality is superb, font size is bigger. The book has numerous illustrations and each page is decorated well. Retelling by Gillian Cross is engaging, it keeps you glued to pages till the woos of Odysseus's are over after a struggle of ten years journey back home. Recommended age : 10+

Odysseus is the best Greek hero. If you don't know who he was (and why should you?) and don't want to read the full 'Odyssey of Homer' - he was the cleverest, most ruthless and impressive of all the Greek heroes. And the stories are great. I can remember reading the Odyssy at school and thinking it was as dull as dishwater - this is'nt dull. The illustrations are interesting - not eye-poppingly colourful like e.g. the Usborne Book of Greek Myth but take their pallet from Greek Art - muted but gorgeous and I suppose, more educational because of that (not a concern for me). This has been family bed-time reading for my 9 and 11 year old (yes, the 11 year old is interested) and is suitable for kids a lot below that age too. Recommended.

A perfect rendition of the classic story for young readers. I read this out loud, along with the Iliad (same author/illustrator) to my 10 year old, 7 year old, and 4 year old sons, and we all enjoyed it. (Note: the four year old did not always make it through each reading session, he was in and out. It's hard to be the youngest). True to Homer's classic version, this is the story of Odysseus's tortured journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. As with the classic, there is a lot of violence. That worried me a little bit, but my sons seem exceptionally indifferent to descriptions or depictions of violence, much to my chagrin. They made faces and complained about the few love/romance parts of the story. My primary criticism of this book is the illustrations. While I appreciate the impressive artistry on an intellectual level, I simply hated most of the pictures. My sons didn't like them, either. Weird body proportions, ghostly white skin on most of the human characters, creepy, grotesque faces even on characters that are supposed to be "handsome" or "beautiful". Art is a very personal thing, so perhaps some people will find the illustrations to be a strength of this book rather than a shortcoming, but not me. For example, see attached photo: call me narrow-minded if you must, I just can't accept this as an image of Athena (though the owl is kind of charming). Five stars because we loved reading this rendition of the story, and even though we did not like the pictures, Neil Packer is clearly a talented artist.

As a boy this was one of my very favorite books. I remember crawling into the nice warm space between the pot bellied stove and the wall on cold wintry Michigan days. I'd escape into a wonderful world of heroes, giants and angry Gods who all vied with each other in epic struggle. What a great tale! Men who cleverly outwitted foes of great strength and supernatural powers to accomplish their ultimate wish...to return home with honor. I seldom spoke to others of this tale, because I was so self conscious that I probably did not know how to pronounce so many of the names. Now along comes a version that has such great illustrations that one wonders how it can be offered at this price. Many "Art" books costing multiples of Amazon's price are not nearly so nice. My wife (who is a graphic artist in her own right) saw the first copy I bought and urged me to buy more copies for all the grand kids, which I did. I expected it to be nice and was really surprised at how much it exceeded my expectations! Highly recommended to folks who love a great adventure that has endured through centuries and especially to those who love great illustration.

I can't believe how great this book is. I've never read the full length version, so can't compare, but I bought this for my 5 1/2 year old son for Christmas and we're both gripped. What an incredible story?! And the illustrations are fabulous! There are bits of the story that are really very scary, especially for a 5 1/2 year old, but it is paced such that these bits are usually quickly followed by a few pages of (temporary and short lived) resolution and peace, so you CAN eventually get your kid to sleep. If you can bear to stop reading yourself. Amazing.

I had never read the Odyssey before and always felt left out when I heard references to it, so I got this for a grandsons' visit so we could all learn. It fascinated the boys aged 6, 7, and 11. Their attention flagged just a bit on pages with no illustrations, but with a few prompts ("Do you think the men are going to obey his orders?") they got back into the story. They LOVED the illustrations, though some verged on too scary. Text was full of action and gruesome details, but none of the men who got eaten by monsters were given names, and the kids seemed fine with that. I'm happy that the boys will now know what it means to be "between Scylla and Charybdis," or why a siren song means a temptation to resist. I'll be watching for opportunities to remind them what they learned. My brother who's a classicist says that the Odyssey stays current because the basic issues in life never change, and it's comforting to think, "Odysseus faced this same problem." You can't get that from Batman.