Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

Tagged: Ancient Greece, Homer, illiad, Module 2, odyssey

This topic has 7 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 4 months ago by missceegee.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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February 11, 2013 at 4:47 am
eawerner
Participant
We are planning on module 2 for next year with the history books as planned. I would like to add in reading a 7 year old friendly version of the Illiad and the Odyssey. Popular options seem to be…
The Children’s Homer, which is SCM recommended for grades 4-6 but on Greenleaf Press website they say it is only the story of the Odyssey, so I would need to get another book for the Illiad then?
Black Ships before Troy and The Wanderings of Odysseus, which is SCM recommended for grades 7-9 but on amazon they look like picture books?
Illiad and Odyssey for Boys and Girls by Alfred Church, which is recomended by Greenleaf press, or I can get them cheap on the Kindle ;).
I would like to do both stories, have good retellings, but not have it be too long. Is that even possible?
Sorry if this seems like an obvious question/answer, but I hardly know what the stories are about myself so I’ll be learning alongside Dd this year. 🙂
February 11, 2013 at 9:44 am
Heather
Participant
We’re enjoying “The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tales of Troy by Padriac Collum. I think it’s the same as The Children’s Homer (retelling of Illiad and Odyssey) and you can get it free for Kindle at gutenberg! My 1st, 2nd and 5th graders are all enjoying it as a read aloud and they all get something different out of it, so it’s a great choice for us!
February 11, 2013 at 12:06 pm
RobinP
Participant
And Black Ships is by Rosemary Sutcliff, excellent author. Picture book style, yes, but very rich.
February 11, 2013 at 1:10 pm
Gem
Participant
I have Tales from the Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborne vols. 1 and 2 – you might want to look at that version as well. Very short chapters and a straightforward retelling of the story. I thought it was good for my 2nd grader to set him up with some familiarity with the story so that a later reading of a more detailed version would be more approachable.
In fact, many times since reading this a couple of years ago, we have come across Homeric allusions, say in movies or poems, and I have said, remember in the Odyssey when (xyz) happened – and they always have the light of recognition come on, so I felt that the book did its job.
February 11, 2013 at 2:06 pm
eawerner
Participant
So The Children’s Homer is or isn’t both tales?
February 11, 2013 at 2:36 pm
Heather
Participant
Yes, it is both!
February 11, 2013 at 3:41 pm
crazy4boys
Participant
I really like the Sutcliff books, but when I read them I felt like they would be better suited for older kids. Even as an adult I enjoyed the language and pictures so I think most midddle school/junior high/high school kids would like it too. There was some blood and violent battle scenes that I didn’t want my littles to see. But that is individual to each family and each child. See if your library has them to preview (or interlibrary loan).
We’ll be using them (Sutcliff books) this year with my 12-yr-olds, but the 9 and 6 will use something else. Or, what will most likely happen, is they’ll see their older brothers reading them and they’ll pick up the books and want to read them. If they don’t mind the pictures then I’ll read it with the littles. If it bothers them, we’ll wait a few more years.
February 11, 2013 at 4:27 pm
missceegee
Participant
My dd12, in 6th, read the two Sutcliff books earlier this year before a trip to Turkey & Greece. She LOVED them and has re-read them many times. They are picture books, but very, very rich and way more that I as an adult knew.