Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Beautiful Books



Black Ships Before Troy and The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff are wonderful books. I had never read them before. I'm not sure I had even heard of them before I saw them in this year's Veritas Press catalog.


I finished reading Black Ships Before Troy last week


and today I began The Wanderings of Odysseus.

I bought the illustrated versions because the illustrator, Alan Lee, was the conceptual artist for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you didn't know, we are big Lord of the Rings fans. With their Christmas Barnes & Noble gift card (thanks again Aunt Lynn and Aunt Margie!)

Sam bought this book:



and Nathan bought this book:

They are ones they've checked out of the library so many times already and now are quite excited to have their own. You can bet your bottom dollar that they sit and pour over the pages for as long as I don't holler at them to do something else.

That love of all things Lord of the Rings, helped make the decision to spend the money on the illustrated versions of Sutcliff's books. I haven't regretted one penny. They are truly beautiful illustrations, and the story really captivates the young'uns. I highly recommend them to you!

3 comments:

Susan said...

Mag & I read the Sutcliffe books for the first time this school year. (I think all the other kids had already read them.) So, now do I say that I have or haven't read the Iliad and the Odyssey? I haven't read the "real" ones, whether English or Greek. Do these "count" as the books?

Glenda said...

They at least "count" as the *story*. I've not read the real ones either. David is doing Omnibus with Hannah and they will begin the "real" Odyssey soon. He plans to read it aloud, so if it works, I'm going to sit and listen. But for now, I at least know the story and main characters.

Anthony said...

you might be interested in www.rosemarysutcliff.wordpress.com?