The Odyssey - selecting portions to read?

[songsparrow]

I plan to read the Odyssey with my sixth grade daughter this fall. I plan to introduce the plot with a graphic novel and Rosemary Sutcliffe's The Wanderings of Odysseus. But I also want to read portions of the Fagles translation together.

 

I haven't read it since my freshman year of college. Although I plan to read it this summer to refresh my memory, I wanted to ask for opinions:

 

What sections should we definitely plan to read together? What sections should we skip?

[NittanyJen]

I read Padraic Colum's Children's Homer to my boys at ages 7 and 10 and didn't feel a need to skip anything.

 

Are you worried about length? Boredom? I would think that by 6th grade there wouldn't be too many 'content' concerns, as by sixth grade most of 'those' conversations have hopefully already taken place, and it's a great time to discuss the place mature themes legitimately have in good literature. It's hard to answer unless we know why you might want to skip something!

[Cosmos]

I read Padraic Colum's Children's Homer to my boys at ages 7 and 10 and didn't feel a need to skip anything.

 

Are you worried about length? Boredom? I would think that by 6th grade there wouldn't be too many 'content' concerns, as by sixth grade most of 'those' conversations have hopefully already taken place, and it's a great time to discuss the place mature themes legitimately have in good literature. It's hard to answer unless we know why you might want to skip something!

 

Children's Homer is a retelling, as is the Sutcliff book the OP is planning to read. Both are substantially abridged and written in language children can understand.

 

Fagles is a translation, which is a whole different kettle of fish. To read a full translation of the Odyssey would be a serious undertaking for most 6th graders.

 

OP, I like your idea of adding some translation excerpts to your retellings. I wish I had thought of that! The only bit I did was to pull out my Fitzgerald translation and read the first couple of pages aloud to my ds.

 

Maybe you could pick a story your dd liked the most and read that?

[kalanamak]

Not an answer to your question, but do consider the Naxos recordings. They are a favorite in our house: Adventures of Odysseus and Tale of Troy

 

The reader is very, very good. If you go to the "Look Inside" function, you can read the opening paragraphs and see how you like the prose.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Troy-Naxos-Junior-Classics/dp/9626340983/ref=pd_sim_b_5

Edited July 4, 2012 by kalanamak

[KarenNC]

We liked listening to Ian McKellan's recording of the Fagles translation of the Odyssey (though not quite as much as Derek Jacobi's recording of the Iliad :)). If she's interested in taking the National Mythology Exam, you could use the sections of the Odyssey included in that as your guide (it is one of the literary subtests that can be chosen). http://www.etclassics.org/pages/the-national-mythology-exam (the bibliography gives the specific books that will be included in the particular year's exam--you want the 2013 one as the exam is given in the spring).

[Julie Smith]

Not an answer to your question, but do consider the Naxos recordings. They are a favorite in our house: Adventures of Odysseus and Tale of Troy

 

The reader is very, very good. If you go to the "Look Inside" function, you can read the opening paragraphs and see how you like the prose.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Troy-Naxos-Junior-Classics/dp/9626340983/ref=pd_sim_b_5

 

I thought I would let you know Kalanamak that, thanks to you I have, "The Tale of Troy" recording right here. I had to special request it from our library. We haven't started it yet.

[songsparrow]

Thanks, everyone, for the replies! I will check out which sections are focused on in the National Mythology Exam. I also like the idea of seeing which portions of the story are my daughter's favorites, and looking at those.

 

As for why I wanted to select or skip portions, I am looking for passages that might be particularly interesting, or particularly lovely to read in the translations, versus portions that might be a heavy slog.

[redsquirrel]

I would look in a Norton's Anthology and see what sections they include. I know I took a class in college, Western Lit 1 & 2 and in 1 we read sections of the Odyssey. It hit the highlights.

 

Or, you could google 'western lit 1 syllabus' and see what people have assigned.

 

http://paws.wcu.edu/bgastle/201/syllabus.html

[Julie Smith]

This thread inspired me.

 

When we are done the Mary Pope Osbourne version of the library I plan to show my kids the original. (As in see written on clay tablets) and then a translation and talk about how there are different versions, and perhaps read the introduction (as in first paragraph) to a translation version.