The single off note is the quotation from various works of children’s literature that appears on the opening page of each entry. Most will be (unknown) to young readers and distract from what is already a high-concept, information-rich book. A table of contents is also (curiously) lacking. But this, along with the evocative graphic-novel-style illustrations by Gareth Hinds, makes the book feel more like play than work.
As it happens, Donna Jo Napoli, a (prolific) author of nonfiction children’s books and of the gorgeous “Treasury of Greek Mythology,” published by National Geographic, is a professor of (linguistics) at Swarthmore College. How she also manages to write so many fine books for children is a feat in itself. Her expertise comes through here in the (language), which is clear and straightforward, but also eloquent and richly textured.
And so, in telling the story of the mother-earth goddess, Napoli writes: “Gaia suffered. The cruelty of this father toward his children was unbearable.” But then, giving even advanced readers good reason to consult a dictionary: “She offered her children an adamantine sickle – lustrous and (unbreakable) – to confront their father with.” Children familiar with Greek mythology will still have something to learn here.
