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Has anyone read Mary Pope Osborne's series about the Odyssey?


Sue G in PA
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We're getting to the Greeks (slowly but surely) and I've seen these books at our library (well, some of them) and just wondered about the quality/retelling of the storyline? Have you or your dc read this series? If so, do you know the order of the titles in the series and how many there are? I just can't seem to find that info anywhere. TIA.

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Tales From the Odyssey series:

 

The One-Eyed Giant

The Land of the Dead

Sirens and Sea Monsters

The Gray-Eyed Goddess

Return to Ithaca

The Final Battle

 

The reading level is approx. 3rd grade. I don't think it's fair to compare this series to the Sutcliff's Wanderings of Odysseus because they're written for a different audience.

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We read through some of them but my dc just didn't like the Odyssey. We tried the versions in Usbornes Greek Myths for Young Children and the one in Story of the World too.

 

They liked the book by Aliki on the Gods and Goddess of Greece and the one on Hercules and a few other Heroes but we got a great big snore for Odysseus.:)

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the Mary Pope Osborne series here for ds6! He was completely captivated by the story of Odysseus and still talks about his adventures regularly. He wants the Playmobil Warrior Ship for his birthday just so he can act out the stories.

 

I had never heard of the Rosemary Sutcliff series until this thread but I am bookmarking them for another time.

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We are re-reading these now--DD7 loves them. They are nifty little hardbacks, and we were lucky enough to check them out of the library.

Odysseus' story in the original starts in the middle, but MPO has written these to be chronological, so they are easier for elementary kids to understand.

I will say, however, that they are pretty violent and descriptive (as is the original, of course). We read them last year for the first time, and picked them up again last week--I'd forgotten how bloody they are!

We keep turning to each other and saying, "Eeeewww!" lol

 

I am going to have dd read Sutcliff's books in the logic stage. I know those are better written. We do enjoy these immensely for now.

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I see you've been given the titles. I picked these up cheap at a bookstore sale as my son asked for them. He was in third grade at the time and he read them on his own. I think they are fine for that. We also read versions of the story by other authors, which I think are even better, but these are fine as read-alones.

 

Regena

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I had these in our book basket and my 9 yo picked them up to read. She ran through them quite quickly, and seemed to enjoy them. Well, she asked for more, so I figure she liked them.

 

I read the first chapter of Coolidge's book and the first chapter of Sutcliff's book to my girls and they picked the Coolidge book. So, I read that one aloud to them. *I* preferred the Sutcliff book. If you get the hard-backed version, the pictures are amazing.

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