High Maintenance Mom

March is National Reading Month or something like that and I thought I'd take a few minutes to write about all the books B has devoured since he read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. A friend recommended The Lightning Thief and we brought it with us on a trip over the winter holidays. It was exciting to find a good book for B to read on the plane, what I didn't realize was that we were going to be running to the bookstore three more times in Chicago followed by almost daily trips to the library for anything that mentions a Greek Myth...

The Lightning Thief brings Greek mythology to life as Percy Jackson finds out he's the son of Poseidon and goes on a quest to prevent war on Mount Olympus. The fifth book in the series, The Last Olympian, is finally out [updated 7 May 09]. B greatly enjoyed the series and finished the final book very quickly even though it spent 24 hours at school in a time out. Also check out the Percy Jackson and The Olympians Web Site.

After reading the four Percy Jackson books B read...

• Jane Yolen's Young Heroes (Hippolyta and the Curse of the Amazons, Atalanta and the Arcadian Beast, Odysseus in the Serpent Maze, and Jason and the Gorgon's Blood, which we had to find from a different library).
• D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths and D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths
• Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths
• A large number of smaller books on individual myths that were read at the library. I can't remember the names of all of them.
• Adventures of the Greek Heroes - Easier reading than Evslin.
• The Golden Fleece: And the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles - a thick book from 1921 that he enjoyed. By this point, I was working through the Greek Mythology section of our library.
• Edith Hamilton's Mythology - I took this out of the library because my copy had really small type.
• We watched the Schlessinger Media Greek myth videos (Constellation Myths, Defying the Gods, The Gods of Olympus, Jason & the Golden Fleece, The Journeys of Odysseus, The Labors of Heracles, Nature Myths, Perseus & Medusa, Theseus & the Minotaur, and The Trojan War)
• Mary Pope Osborne's Tales from the Odyssey Series (The One-Eyed Giant, The Land of the Dead, Sirens and Sea Monsters, The Gray-Eyed Goddess, Return to Ithaca, and The Final Battle)
• Barefoot Books The Odyssey
• Tales of Troy and Greece , by Andrew Lang 1963
• Words from the Myths - I know he read parts of this but I'm not sure how much of it.
• Kate McMullen's Myth-o-Mania series - this series is very funny and written at a younger grade level. We're going to take out the rest of the series this weekend. The first book is about Zeus written from Hades perspective. B has read it about 25 times.
• The Iliad and the Odyssey - a cartoon book (graphic novel) by Marcia Williams
• And the series we currently love is Caroline Lawrence's Roman Mysteries Series.
  

  THE YEAR IS AD 79.

  THE PLACE IS OSTIA, PORT OF ROME.

  FROM HERE, FLAVIA GEMINA, DAUGHTER OF A ROMAN SEA CAPTAIN, EMBARKS ON THRILLING ADVENTURES WITH HER THREE FRIENDS JONATHAN, NUBIA AND LUPUS.

  AS SHE AND HER FRIENDS ATTEMPT TO SOLVE THEIR FIRST CRIME, THE CLUES LEAD THEM AROUND OSTIA: TO THE HARBOUR, THE FORUM, THE LIGHTHOUSE AND THE TOMBS OF THE DEAD.

  LATER MYSTERIES TAKE THEM TO POMPEII, ROME, GREECE, North AFRICA, Egypt, Turkey and finally back to Ostia and Rome. (From the Roman Mysteries Web Site)

  There are more than 16 books available and the 17th is due out in June 2009.

More books since the original post

• Bulfinch's Mythology - B really didn't like Bulfinch's book and wouldn't talk about it for a while. He later told me he read the King Arthur stories and a few of the others but was upset by the order. He wanted them to be chronological.
• Graphic Myths and Legends (each is a separate short book) Atalanta: The Race Against Destiny, Arthur & Lancelot: The Fight for Camelot, Isis & Osiris: To the Ends of the Earth, King Arthur: Excalibur Unsheathed (I think we had this one), Demeter & Persephone: Spring Held Hostage, Hercules: The Twelve Labors, Jason: Quest for the Golden Fleece, Odysseus: Escaping Poseidon's Curse, Theseus: Battling the Minotaur, The Trojan Horse: The Fall of Troy. B also read all the ones we could find on Washington, Franklin, Lincoln, and general early American History.
• Heroes in Greek mythology by Karen Bornemann Spies - He read this earlier but I forgot. It has questions and answers after each chapter.
• The Iliad and the Odyssey in Greek mythology by Karen Bornemann Spies. This one also has questions and answers and B was reading it this morning at the table.
• Adventures in Ancient Greece (Good Times Travel Agency) - This is a cartoon with lots of additional information about things and people you might encounter in ancient Greece. B wants to read the entire series (Good Times Travel Agency books), which includes the Ice Age, Middle Ages, and Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, and Vikings.
• Greek Gods and Heroes by Robert Graves (Young Reader version from 1960).
• Greek Myths by Olivia Coolidge and The Trojan War by Olivia Coolidge. These have fairly large type and are about 260 pages each.
• Gods, Men, & Monsters from the Greek Myths by Michael Gibson and Illustrated by Giovanni Caselli.
• The Greeks A Great Adventure by Isaac Asimov - B said he read this one but I wasn't sure. He read Asmiov's The Kite That Won the Revolution earlier, which we all really enjoyed. It gave a history of several topics including of electricity experiments. When I just asked B what his favorite part was as he ran out to ride his scooter he said, Thor's hammer, which was one of the chapters. We read it several months ago and I don't remember the chapter very much but I think it talked a little about mythology.
• The other two I took out of the library that I'm not sure if he's read are The Mysteries of Homer's Greeks by Edmonds and Gifts from the Greeks Alpha to Omega by Sophia Boyer and Winifred Lubell.
• Someone on the mensa bright kids list suggested the Cronus Chronicles, of which two are out. B read The Shadow Thieves and is happily reading The Siren Song. The last book, The Immortal Fire, is due out this summer and can be preordered. In this series a girl and her cousin work to save the world from a bright lower level Underworld manager who wants to overthrow Hades.

I will [have been] add[ing] to the list as we continue to devour books and after I check in with B about other books I might have forgotten. I've also brought home books on Egyptian Mythology but B doesn't like them as much. He hasn't wanted to read Harry Potter because he finds the first few chapters too scary. He also found the It's All Greek to Me (Scieszka's Time Warp Trio) too scary, which was surprising to me since I find the Roman Mysteries to be very intense.