Bulfinch's Mythology ... instead of ...

[Luanne]

If I wanted a book to replace Bulfinch's Mythology, what would you recommend?

[vmsurbat]

With five children and being nearly done with homeschooling (youngest is off to college next year!), we've used quite a few mythology books over the years, adding to our collection as the number of readers and their abilities grew.

 

Since you don't say why you'd like a sub or for what ages, here are a few suggestions that worked for us:

 

1. Classic Myths to Read Aloud (Russell): This is a very nice collection of myths suitable for children ages 5-12 (and up! Especially if myths are a new genre). Everyone of my children greatly enjoyed this book. Each story has an mini-introduction and usually ends with an explanation of how some of the words/concepts from the myth are used today.

 

2. Padraic Colum's various volumes on mythology: The Children's Homer; The Children of Odin; The Golden Fleece; and others. Each of these includes more than the title I indicated. My children read these independently anywhere from 4th-9th grade and liked them very, very much.

 

3. D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths is highly illustrated. We didn't use this one but it is often recommended.

 

4. Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales and A Wonder Book. We had these on hand and some of the children read them. The myths are told to a group of children, so the book alternates between "present day" (Hawthorne's time) and the myths.

 

5. Rosemary Sutcliff and Roger L. Green both have tales of myth books. I picked up a few by Green for free reading and the children enjoyed them. Although we like a lot of Sutcliff's works, I never did buy any of her Greek/Roman myth books, only her King Arthur set.

 

6. Mythology by Edith Hamilton. One of the classic texts used in high schools/university.

 

HTH,