Marcia Williams (1) (1945–)

This is the most memorable version of the Robin Hood tales I have seen. Marcia Williams' illustrations are quite quirky but in two page segments she tells all of the best known tales of the Merry Men. This is an ideal book for children who might not be ready for abridged or more complete editions of the stories. We had initially listened to the Dorling Kindersley audio book of Robin Hood, by Ioan Gruffudd, and this was an excellent next step as our children were ready to explore the stories show more more. Unlike the Howard Pyle version of the tales, the language is easy and often funny, but not too simple to be enticing. show less

Inspired by Jane Austen’s classic novel, “Pride and Prejudice”, we can easily believe that Elizabeth Bennet just might have written this diary. It is a fun re-imagining of Lizzy Bennet’s world through her eyes with realistic journal entries and cute drawings and captions filling each page. But it’s the realistic invitations, notes, and letters glued to the pages in scrapbook style that thrilled me the most. As a person who is very familiar with Austen’s novel, “Pride and show more Prejudice, and the many screenplays based on the novel, I am not sure how a young child unfamiliar with these might respond to this “diary”, but I hope that it would lead them to the original work. For those of us who can never get enough of Longbourn, Mr. Darcy, and the irrepressible Bennets, this is a wonderful treat that is true to the original classic.

Sharyn H. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

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Quite an amusing concept: presents seven Shakespearean plays in bande dessinée format. The book itself represents the Globe Theatre with the plays on centre stage and Elizabethan spectators crowding the margins (the groundlings being, of course, at the bottom of the page) commenting on the action. Thus each performance has three simultaneous parts: the words, the visual spectacle, and the "famously rude and noisy" audience that surrounds us. I'm not sure that it completely works, but the show more author/illustrator gets full marks for imagination! show less

Characters: Pandora, Zeus, Epimetheus, Prometheus

Setting: Ancient Greece

Theme: Hope is always in presence in times of evil.

Summary: Pandora was the daughter Zeus, the king of the Gods, ordered Hephaestus to make and the first woman on Earth. She married Epimetheus whose brother, Prometheus, stole fire from Zeus and distributed to mankind. Enraged Zeus took vengeance on Epimetheus and mankind by giving Pandora a little locked box. His instruction to never open it only egged her curiosity. show more One day, she opened it and out flew all the evil such as diseases, sickness, hate, and envy. The world was an absolute chaos until Pandora reopened the box to find a fluttering spirit of hope.

Review: Greek myth never fails to be enchanting. This book, designed for younger readers, includes eight Greek myths (Pandora's box, Arion and the Dolphins, Orpheus and Eurydice, Heracles and his twelve tasks, Daedalus and Icarus, Perseus and the Gorgon's head, Theseus and the Minotaur, and Arachne and Athene) with simple vocabulary and enjoyable illustration in a comic strip format that embeds a sense of humor. I chose my favorite one, Pandora's box, to elaborate. I feel that every book contains its unique lesson, and Greek myths do so in an attractive way. Students will enjoy reading the book and exploring the ancient Greece and its culture while taking an important lesson that in times of despair and evil, it is always early to give up on hope for it exists at all times. If planning to choose this book as a readaloud or for a story hour, take into consideration that some parents might not approve their children's exposure to slight violence the book may portray.

Curriculum times: Social studies (Ancient Greek, Greek mythology, Greek culture) show less