Boys Rule Boys Read!: The Great Greek Post!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

The Great Greek Post!

Hey, everyone, Carl again. Today's post is a good one to follow Mr. Riordan's interview because we've got pictures from the Heroes program Tuesday about Theseus and the Minotaur, a comment from someone with a name from Greek mythology, and several good book versions of the Theseus Story.

Let's hear first from orestes, our newest friend:

that is so cool rick riordan is, a greek god. i cant wait till his new book come out ill be the first one at borders.

Thanks, orestes! Watch out for the Furies! Come in and get your free book! I'm like you--I can't wait until May 6. Except, being a faithful library guy, I'm going to get mine through PLCMC. I've put it on hold already! I'll be sixth in line when it comes in. When the 5th, 6th, and 7th Harry Potter books came out, we had 750 people on the waiting list!!! Hey, do you think Borders will have a Percy Jackson party, like they did for Harry Potter?

Well, let me show you some photos from the Theseus and the Minotaur program:

Here I am, pointing out the map of the Greek world and the routes Theseus traveled.

Watch out, here comes the Minotaur!

Aaaaarrrgghhhhh!!! The Minotaur gets it!!

We did some Theseus and Minotaur computer games afterward. cyber kid 303 sent us the links. I'll show them to you in a bit.

Here is Leland and his brother also enjoying the games.

You want the links? OK:

http://www.tnelson.demon.co.uk/mazes/

www.cacjl.org/game.php

These may look absurdly simple at first. Theseus is a red dot in one game and a stick figure in the other, but let me tell you, these games are hard! If you can make 3 escapes in 200 tries, you're doing better than any of us could, including Bill--and he's a real gamemeister!

All right, let me tell you about a few books. I'll be brief since there are so many.

These first three books are good, thrilling reads. The illustrations are outstanding and give the right moods of the story.

Theseus and the Minotaur by Warwick Hutton

The Hero and the Minotaur: The Fantastic Adventures of Theseus by Robert Byrd

Theseus and the Minotaur by Leonard Everett Fisher (no picture available)

Here's a chapter book version of the story:

Theseus retold by Geraldine Mc Caughrean

She also did chapter books of Hercules and Perseus. I haven't read the Hercules book yet, but I did enjoy this one.

Fantastic Creatures from Greek Myths by Pat Posner

This is a good collection of ancient Greek myths. I first read the Bellerephon and the Chimera story here and loved it. Good version of Theseus, too.

Finally, here is one called Z Is For Zeus: A Greek Mythology Alphabet by Helen L. Wilbur.

Now you guys are probably groaning and saying, "An alphabet book! We're way past that!" Not to worry, mi compadres! This is not your "A is for Apple" type of book; it's got a lot of good information in here. Plus it's got really funny illustrations. (Look at the front cover and then look at the picture for the letter Z and see if you don't laugh!) I found this book just today and it's already become a favorite!

All right, guys! Go find a good gyro sandwich and enjoy these books!

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