Beowulf: A Tale of Blood, Heat, and Ashes

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the artwork was fantastic and the imagery of the text was wonderful. I love that the story teaches that even monsters have families and that they aren't so distant from us.

This book is about a Geatish warrior named Beowulf. He had experienced the attack of a creature named Grendel. After a while, Beowulf was able to defeat Grendel by tearing of its arm. Then Grendel's mother got angry with Beowulf for killing her son. Grendel's mother attempted to kill Beowulf, but Beowulf killed her with an obsidian blade. Then after years Beowulf came back and a dragon had come along. Even though Beowulf had defeated the dragon, he and his friends were killed by the dragon. Then Beowulf's body was burned at sea.

I loved this book! It had a very interesting plot. It even had very well executed foreshadowing. The thing that I loved most is that it had action scenes that were very descriptive. I even would've rated it five show more stars, if it wasn't as gory as it was. I do recommend this book to you, as long as you can handle a bit of violence. show less

Great read for a younger (approx age 10-12) audience. My son enjoyed this immensely around age 8, the illustrations are really good. It is fairly gruesome. I guess I read the Penguin edition of this when I was in college, it is one of my favorite stories, torn-off-arms and all.

The illustrations are what really make this a read (if you've read "Beowulf" before especially.)

I would hope that other translations would fare better than thou. Seamus Heaney seems the best way forward. I will keep thee informed.

Excellent illustrations and storytelling.

Love the artwork