Which version of Illiad retold: P. Colum, O.Coolidge, or A. Church?

I would rate them as levels of from simplist to more complicated as Church, Coolidge, and Colum. Again, all of them have different aspects that make them appealing for different reasons.

Church’s versions are fairly straightforward. They tell the story well. 

Coolidge seems to be readable as welll with a little more detail. 

If you choose Colum, I think that a basic knowledge of Greek myths and how Colum writes long stories within his stories would be benefical for your child to understand it better. His Golden Fleece book threw me at first because I did not know that, and I couldn’t figure out why the stories kept flipping back and forth, until I read more about the gods and heroes (and those are a big part of the Illiad and Odyssey, as you know). His books are excellent, btw.

Hope this helps.

Just went and read them. Hmmmm! 😉 Well, one said the dialogue was stiltled in a few places, and another one said she actually used the writings of at least 3 people to create this version…perhaps she was using dialogue from several authors for the same person??

I think that they all are going to have some type of thing like that because we all come to these books with various levels of understanding, expectations, and experience with the material.

So…which version you choose will depend on your goal for your kiddos. Do you want them to “get” the basics or do you want them to enjoy a few more details? How long do you want them to spend reading about this subject? Not very helpful, I know, but really I think your choice has to be influenced by those questions.

I just wish we could all have these types of resources in hand when asking questions – we’d probably be amazed at how quick decisions would be. LOL