Book of the Month - History for Kids!

Book of the month

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This is a good, detailed account of the main Greek myths - much more detailed than D'Aulaire, for instance. The illustrations are taken from Greek vase paintings, which is nice (though photos of the vases themselves would have been better!).

Be warned, though, that this is a pretty conservative approach to Greek religion. Professor Martin (who is chair of the Classics Department at Stanford University) sides with Lefkowitz against Bernal on the question of influence from ancient Egypt and West Asia, and plays down the possible conflict between pre-Greek people and the invading Indo-Europeans.

(In case you're wondering, the more salacious details are there, but in very veiled terms).

Other books we've recommended:

Mary Renault's The King Must Die is the story of Theseus and the Minotaur as a novel. It's a little racy for some younger readers, but good writing and a version of the story that will have anyone interested in Greek myths turning the pages.
Mary Renault doesn't mind using plenty of artistic license to fill in the gaps in the evidence, but she knows what the evidence is and follows it for the most part.

(Click on the picture to buy)

A Street Through Time is a great way to introduce the idea of change, and of archaeology. It's a sort of I SPY book. It begins with a picture of a riverbank in the Stone Age, with people hunting and tanning hides and fishing. The next picture shows the Iron Age, and now the people have thatched huts and have built a stone circle for the gods. The sequence continues through the Romans (who build a stone bridge), the Vikings, the plague, the Industrial Revolution, and all the way to the present day. The last page has an archaeological museum which displays objects from all the other periods. The setting is Britain.

Good for very small children as well as bigger ones.