Mythology for Children?

[Amethyst Rose]

There's bible stories for children, but what about mythology for children? Stories from different religions.... Greek, Celtic, Native, etc. myth written in a child friendly form? Would you be interested in something like this to help teach your children about the beliefs of other religions? Is there already something like this out there?

[amathera]

I had once thought about writing mythological tales into a format for children. Unfortunately, that is as far as it got. When I look at what the politically correct did to fairy tales, I am kind of glad that I didn't!

[veinglory]

Maybe it is your bookshop at fault. As a kid, some 20 years ago, I read a lot of myth for children including greek and celtic. I still have my children's encyclopedia of greek myths with its wonderful pictures. There is a lot if young adult myth in all traditions.

[Mnemosyne]

There are books on mythology for children out there. I don't know what age group that you are looking for, but most are designed for at least the age of 9. I have Usborne Book of Greek and Norse Legends and D'aulaires Book of Greek myths. You can always read these myths to your child.

I used to teach ancient history to sixth graders, so I have a lot of resources on Greek mythology. I'll have to look at my resources to see if there are any other good resources out there to teach mythology to children.

[Ravens_Tears]

Mythology for children??? I believe alot of that would fall under Walt Disney! :) Not exactly accurate but alot of the classics are based upon mythology.

[Amethyst Rose]

That's a good point...hadn't thought of Disney. There was a cartoon I used to watch that was Greek mythology...
I'm intersted in one book that has a compilation of mythology from many different religions, that is suitable for young children...say age 5 and up.

[Ben Trismegistus]

I've got a bunch. One of my favorites is called "Northern Lullaby" - it's an Inuit lullaby, and the artwork is breathtaking.

[veinglory]

I recall 'the woman who lived with horses' or some such, native American myth with beeeautiful art.

[tinuviel42]

Hi there! This is my first official post outside of my newbie thread. I went to my girls' room and grabbed all I could find. My kids are 2 and 4, by the way. I'm not sure if they always get the stories, but I try to pick for good illustration, too.

The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus, written and illustrated by Aliki. A synopsis of the Greek creation myth and the defeat of Cronus by Zeus. Afterward, gives a full page description with illustration of the Olympians, plus a couple. Beautifully illustrated. Yes, it leaves out a couple of more adult details, but otherwise they're told well and with respect.

Ishtar and Tammuz, by Christopher Moore. Slightly altered version of the myth, but again told with respect, with a short afterward about ancient Mesopotamia. Bold, eye-catching illustrations.

Raven, a trickster tale from the Pacific Northwest, by Gerald McDermott. A simple picture book, geared towards younger kids, again with very bold pictures. My girls have requested this as one of their bedtime stories twice this week.

Your Owl Friend, by Crescent Dragonwagon. (Love that name) Not a myth book, per se, but has some shamanistic overtones (at least that's what I saw).

Sun-Day, Moon-Day--How the Week was Made, by Cherry Gilchrist and Amanda hall. Bigger and thicker, my girls haven't shown too much interest in this one yet. It goes through the days of the week one by one and gives a description of the deities who have been associated with it in various cultures. Then it picks one and tells a story about it. For example, for Sunday, one of the gods it talked about was Apollo. It then went on to tell the story of Phaethon. Pretty interesting.

Sorry if this is kinda long, but, well, there you go :)

[Amethyst Rose]

Wow!! These sound great, thank you!

(just realized that this thread is probably more appropriate in the book forum....sorry guys).

[tinuviel42]

Ooo...I probably should mention that I'm not sure about the availability of some of these, as I got some of them from used book stores. If there is a Half Price Books near you (I think they're a chain--used/new books, at most half cover price) I know I got a couple of them there. Just so you know. :)

[*Rain*]

Amethyst Rose there is a really good online resource called the Encyclopedia Mythica

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/folklore/folktales

There are good sections on folklore and mythology including a picture gallery. I know it's not quite the same as a book but the info is there if you can't get it anywhere else.

[mothwench]

i'd be very interested- and have been thinking about putting together a book of fairy tales and mythology for children (not the disney versions of the fairy tales, but safe for kids to read all the same. ) i've started doing some illustrations for various tales, but it's gonna take me a while to finish it, cause i have a couple of other projects going as well.
speaking of disney: remember hercules? ok, i thought it was a drag, but i was too old when it came out. but that's mythology for kids...

[Autumn]

I have an Usborn book of greek mythology for my kids as well as a number of picture books and a picture book by Kris Walherr (Goddess Tarot) that has 20 or so different Goddesses in it.

[Siarlas]

I have one for Amber... I have no idea what it's called at the moment...
It has various short stories from different cultures. So far we've only got to reading about the different versions of the beginning of the world, but at 4 years old, she already loves it.

[Lucius]

I used to read Mythology books for children when I was younger...*raises eyebrow*