Myths and Legends

by Sandra Lawrence, Emma Trithart (Illustrator)

Overview

Uncover mythical legends and legendary myths in this beautifully illustrated handbook of stories. Delve into different cultures and religions, meet powerful gods and brave heroes, and travel on fabled quests from tales of old.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781944530112
Publisher:	Tiger Tales.
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Series:	360 Degrees Series
Pages:	72
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 7.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	1100L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Sandra Lawrence wears two writing-hats: as a journalist, writing for newspapers and magazines, and as an author, often focusing on heritage, history and folklore. She loves collecting stories from all over the world and finding out how different countries celebrate big events. Sandra lives in London, and spends much of her time rootling out weird and secret treasures the city has hidden over the past two millennia.

Editorial Reviews

09/01/2017
Gr 2–4—This compact volume provides a brief peek into different world mythologies. The book is divided into five sections—"Gods and Heroes," "Creation Myths," "Mythology and the Natural World," "Mythical Journeys," and "Legendary Love Stories"—and each one is made up of a collection of snippets on various subtopics. Unfortunately, the ambition to include so many different traditions ends up being a stumbling block. Many of the summaries of the various myths are incredibly brief, and the lack of transitions between entries creates a disjointed reading experience. Although this could be a way to pique students' interest in exploring the topic in more depth, no back matter is provided to give direction for further research. Each spread includes at least one colorfully expressive image depicting one of the legends; these illustrations are attractive and well executed. VERDICT Purchase only where books about mythology are in extremely high demand.—Sarah Reid, Four County Library System, NY

School Library Journal

2017-07-02
A compact survey of world myths and legends.Explaining that "myths are stories people used to tell to explain things they didn't understand about their history, nature, or the world around them" and that "legends may once have been based on truth" but "have become fabulous fantasies," Lawrence presents a smattering of notable characters and tales. The Greeks get a fair amount of attention, with the stories of Heracles, Theseus, Jason, and Pandora each afforded a double-page spread. As the book is quite small (5 ¾ inches high by 7 ½ inches across), that's just a few sentences each. Other characters are grouped thematically (Robin Hood, Sun Wukong, Finn McCool, and Kintaro are "heroes"; Baba Yaga, Baron Samedi, Medusa, and Set are "the bad guys"). Although it's clear Lawrence has worked not to limit herself to European mythology, her efforts at inclusivity are ham-handed at best. Next to a picture that looks suspiciously like Disney's Pocahontas is a brief blurb on the generic "Native American spirit Sky Woman" (printed in black ink on dark-purple paper, so many readers may skip this anyway). Stories from extant cosmologies are presented alongside dead ones with no explanation, so readers who don't know better may come away thinking Hinduism is as passé as the Norse pantheon, for instance. Equally troubling, stories and figures from the Abrahamic traditions are entirely absent, setting up a false opposition among belief systems. Skip. (Nonfiction. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews