Children's books about mythology 🏹
Notes From the Reading Nook: December 12
Hello there, and good morning.
I know some of you are still looking for some family reads for Christmas, and you’re in luck because I spun up a ton of stuff to meet that need this year. ICYMI:
Download my first-ever Can we read? Children’s Picture Books for Christmas guide, featuring 32 pages’ worth of reviews covering 35 picture books for ages 0-10, published over a span of 55 years, including eight reviews that have never before been published in my newsletter.
Watch my short little video, (More) children’s books for Christmas, especially if you want to hear my voice, which some of you have specifically requested for no reason I can fathom 🤷🏻♀️
Browse my Bookshop.org list, Books for Christmas
The Donkey’s Dream by Barbara Helen Berger
Gingerbread Mouse by Katy Bratun
Under the Christmas Tree by Nikki Grimes (prob my favorite Christmas poetry — I never tire of reading this one)
It’s all Christmas, all the time right now, and I’ve been a little surprised at how often my children are choosing our oldest standbys — likely because we all need a little extra comfort right now, however and wherever we can get it.
Mini issue: Mythology
I’ll say right now that this is not an exhaustive list of mythology books for kids, but it’s a start! Please be sure to chime in with comments if I’ve missed any beloved titles for your family.
Note: I have specifically chosen to leave out any and all versions of The Iliad and The Odyssey, as that could be a mini issue of its own. (Is that of interest? Lmk.)
And: thank you to Darcy and Marlena for this idea. Great minds… 🌀
Picture books
Waa’aka’: The Bird Who Fell in Love with the Sun by Cindy Alvitre
Pandora by Robert Burleigh
Persephone by Sally Pomme Clayton
Atalanta’s Race by Shirley Climo
Cupid and Psyche by M. Charlotte Craft
I Am Pan! by Mordicai Gerstein
Perseus by Warwick Hutton
Theseus and the Minotaur by Warwick Hutton
The Flying Horse: The Story of Pegasus by Jane B. Mason (early reader)
Pegasus by Marianna Mayer
The Night the Moon Fell by Pat Mora
Pandora’s Box by Mary Pope Osborne
There’s a Monster in the Alphabet by James Rumford
Arthur and The Golden Rope by Joe Todd-Stanton (the first in the Brownstones Mythical Collection series)
Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns: A Mesoamerican Creation Myth by Duncan Tonatiuh
Gilgamesh the King by Ludmila Zeman (the first in a trilogy — all of which remain my all-time favorite mythology picture books to read with my kids)
(It is interesting to me that there is a serious paucity of picture books that feature mythology outside of the Greek and Roman stories. This is amended somewhat in collections, and greatly in books for older readers — there is actually a pretty diverse variety of mythology-based stories for older readers. Something to consider when looking for titles for your family or classroom.)
Collections
(Some of these have ample illustrations, and some have none — so some will be suitable for younger kiddos, and some you may need to wait until they can listen to longer stories with few, if any, images.)
The Girl Who Helped Thunder and Other Native American Folktales retold by James Bruchac and Joseph Bruchac (includes some myths)
Native American Stories by Joseph Bruchac and Michael J. Caduto
In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World by Virginia Hamilton
Across the Rainbow Bridge: Stories of Norse Gods and Humans by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Norse Myths: Tales of Odin, Thor and Loki by Kevin Crossley-Holland
The Bronze Cauldron: Myths and Legends of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean
D’Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d’Aulaire and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
D’Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths by Ingri d’Aulaire and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
Favorite Greek Myths by Mary Pope Osborne
The Robber Baby: Stories From Greek Myths by Anne Rockwell
Greek Myths by Ann Turnbull
Poetry
Ancient Voices by Kate Hovey
Arachne Speaks by Kate Hovey
Echo Echo by Marilyn Singer
For older readers or read-alouds
The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes (first in a series)
Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi (first in a series)
The Golden Fleece: And the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles by Padraic Colum
The Island of the Mighty by Padraic Colum
Thor’s Wedding Day: By Thialfi, the Goat Boy by Bruce Coville
The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta (first in a series)
Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada Kelly
Gilded by Christina L. Farley
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (amazing on audio)
Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (the first in a trilogy)
Zeus: King of the Gods by George O’Connor (the first in the graphic novel series, The Olympians)
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (the first in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series)
Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Night Parade by Kathryn Tanquary
Do you have children’s mythology recommendations for your fellow subscribers? Let us know!
⛔️ A cautionary note about picture books featuring Native American myths: a lot of these are made-up and disrespectful to the nations whose stories they claim to be telling (examples off the top of my head include Gerald McDermott titles and the Native American Legends series by Terri Cohlene).
Before I share — much less buy — any Native books, I check Debbie Reese’s incredible website, American Indians in Children’s Literature, and if I’m really in doubt, I refer to both Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children and its follow-up, A Broken Flute, both of which, thankfully, are available at my local library. I do this due diligence for every Native American and/or First Nations title I include in this newsletter because it’s important to me — and I also believe in trusting but verifying, so I encourage you to do your own research.
If you’re interested in how I learned to identify stereotypes of Native people and cultures found in children’s books in a much more accurate way, I wrote a post about it, What I Learned From Lessons From Turtle Island, in February 2021. This rabbit hole of inquiry and self-education led directly to me getting rid of the entire Little House on the Prairie series without reading it to my children, which remains the most controversial thing I’ve ever written in this newsletter 😂 and is still a hill I’ll die on.
(And if you’re wondering why you should care or what difference any of this makes, I’ll refer you to my post, Why representation matters.)
Read good books and take good care 😘
Sarah
P.S. All Bookshop.org links are affiliate ones, which means I get a small commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you, though you do receive some extra sparkly karma✨
Sarah, I agree wholeheartedly with your opinion on the Little House series. I loved those books as a kid (had 2 sets so I could lend the books to friends!) but even then I always felt deeply uncomfortable with the treatment of Native Americans in the book. Now, as an adult, it deeply hurts me when I reflect back on it. I will allow my kids to read it but likely as teens when they can see for themselves the treatment of Native Americans in that period (frankly, to date). I actually think the books are a great case study for how we gloss over the way we’ve treated the Indigenous peoples of the United States and how the morality of the (white) pioneers is absolute. Ha, I’m starting to get worked up and I’ll stop now.
Thank you for this. As you know, the D'Aulaires Greek Mythology books is one of my few books I've kept since childhood. I was pleased to see that Lake City Books has it in stock. My recent joyful Greek myth listen has been Stephen Fry's Mythos, and I promptly purchased it in print, then Heroes. I love that we've been doing our best to make light and sense of the world for such a long (and short) amount of time. Myths throw time into the air and laughs at our attempts for order, then almost imposes it in the most ridiculous ways.