Independent Reading Level: Grades 3rd through 5th grade
Awards: None as of current date.

Retells twelve tales from Greek mythology, including the stories of King Midas, Echo and Narcissus, the Golden Apples, and Cupid and Psyche.

This is an OK introduction to Greek Myths for 7-9 year olds. Mary Pope Osborne was a favorite when my child was young. We both enjoyed her Magic Tree House series. The illustrations are nice too, reminiscent of N. C. Wyeth's style. However, I only gave the book 2 and 1/2 stars because of the inexplicable mixing of Greek and Roman names in the stories. The author does say she used mostly Ovid's Metamorphoses as a resource, but still why call them "Greek" myths but use the Roman names for the gods, while keeping some of the other characters' Greek names? I found this irritating, though a child would certainly not be bothered by it due to ignorance. Also at the end there is a list of "modern words with Greek origins" and again, there are many words in the list of Latin origin, though this is not distinguished (for example: cereal from Ceres, the Latin name of Demeter). I understand that the author didn't want to get into these pesky details since the book is geared towards elementary age children (all the myths are 'cleaned up' by the way, no sexual violence), but then just use only the Greek names. Or if the Roman names are more suited for whatever reason, then use only the Roman names -- not this mix. ( )

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Myths are written in very child friendly language without sacrificing content or themes. Shorter myths that get straight to the point.