raganfamily Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We are studying the ancients and I have heard both of these books are great. However, I was curious if it is necessary to read both or just read one? If one, which one? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Mine liked Black Ships more. Children's Homer was a bit on the dry side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Mine liked Black Ships more. Children's Homer was a bit on the dry side. :iagree: I really liked Children's Homer, and kiddo will listen if I read it aloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy713 Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 My daughter really enjoyed Black Ships. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTMCassandra Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 What ages are your children? We used both, for different reasons. I had the text of Children's Homer hanging around, but it worked so well as a car audiobook (unabridged) that we never cracked the book. Black Ships is a Big Kid picture book. It has pictures, but also a lot of text. So I assigned that as independent reading in the middle grades, after they had heard the audiobook of Children's Homer a few times. I don't think either is too suitable for the 5-8 yo set, unless they are already used to full-length works in audiobooks. If you've already trained them to it, then you could probably get away with the audiobook. For the first time this year, they read a full translation of The Odyssey, following along with an audiobook with their own texts, and it went really well. They really enjoyed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karensk Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Black Ships Before Troy is a retelling of The Iliad, while The Children's Homer is a retelling of both The Iliad and The Odyssey. Black Ships Before Troy is a little easier to follow, since The Children's Homer uses flashbacks and its sentence structure is a bit more complex. I have my kids read both, but I prefer The Children's Homer. Black Ships had more details about the battles than I cared for. I believe The Children's Homer is available online for free (under its previous title). HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raganfamily Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 My original plan was to read Children's Homer aloud to my 5 kids (ages 6-14) and have the older three (14,12 &10) read Black Ships Before Troy to themselves. I may still do this and see how it goes. Thank you everyone for posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloggermom Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We love Black Ships Before Troy and her other book The Wanderings of Odysseus. We got the illustrated hardback versions. We also have The Children's Homer, but we like the other two better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We love Black Ships Before Troy and her other book The Wanderings of Odysseus. We got the illustrated hardback versions. We also have The Children's Homer, but we like the other two better. Thank you for referencing the other book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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