Classical Mythology and Children’s Literature . . . an Alphabetical Odyssey

This is the book I’ve been working on for the past few years, in the excellent company of Miriam Riverlea.

It’s published! Available online and in hard copy through the University of Warsaw Press’s Our Mythical Childhood series.

It’s an Alphabetical Odyssey… 26 short chapters discussing key themes in children’s literature with classical elements. We’ve done our best to think the issues through–from Adaptation, to Beasts, to Childhood, and so on. Dealing with Difficult Subjects. Girls and Boys. How to be Heroic. Mythical and Magical Beings. Olympians. Underworld Adventures.

Each chapter has our thoughts about the key issues, discussions about how texts deal with them, illustrations from said texts, reading lists, and more.

And throughout, the book is illustrated by Steve K. Simons’s wonderful images.

More information is available here:

I’ll be sharing chapters over the next few months, and posting about the themes as they come up…

In the meantime, in, read it from cover to cover, plunder the index and bibliography …. it’s all there waiting for readers, and we hope you will enjoy…

Elizabeth Hale