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featured book review: january 2003 The One-Eyed Giant (Tales from the Odyssey Part I) by Mary Pope Osborne / Illustrated by Troy Howell for Ages 9-12 (from Hyperion, 2002) The world, at last, has returned to the knowledge that pre-teen children can delight in actual, substantive writing, well-conceived and well-delivered. For this I grant near-exclusive credit to J. K. Rowling, who overturned the falsisms that kid lit must be short, simple and lambkins-light by creating the inimitable Harry Potter series. No other books for pre-teen readers have been so long, so complex, so dark --- and so enthusiastically received. Whether Mary Pope Osborne's retelling of the Odyssey for children ages nine to twelve would ever have come to pass without Harry Potter paving the way, I cannot say for certain, but I very much doubt it. What book publisher five years ago would have believed that a market could be found in that age bracket for a story with a cast of thousands bearing names like Telemachus, Polyphemus and Agamemnon? But now that Hermione, Dumbledore and Volde... uh, You-Know-Who have made it big --- and over 160 other characters in the Potter series --- publishers have been put on notice that kids can and do devour literature. The TALES FROM THE ODYSSEY series, published by Hyperion for Children, is the work of kid-lit phenom Mary Pope Osborne, author of the Magic Tree House books --- yet another series that's taking children's powers of retention and synthesis seriously. I knew what I did NOT want when I saw this first book, "The One Eyed Giant." I dearly wish there was indeed a Hell so that the creative minds who saw to it that my childrens' first exposure to Michelangelo was a Ninja Turtle and first sights of Hercules and Hades were as goofy Disney animations. In lieu of Hell, a scabby, itchy pox on them, in places impossible to reach. So I wanted to be sure their first voyage with Odysseus was not a dumbed-down or hyped-up perversion of the story that had riveted and intrigued me as a boy. Neither, I knew, should nine-year olds be read to straight from Jeremy Bentham's translations of Homeric verse. Mary Pope Osborne's work is a beautifully-executed piece that puts down stakes in that challenging middle ground. Not a single significant story element is missing, though we are spared the endless odes and adjectives of the original. (Some nice exceptions for Homerphiles: Athena's "flashing grey eyes" and Odysseus' "twelve sleek ships," both of which indicate that Osborne has read, and has some affection for, actual Homeric turns-of-phrase.) A long and deep exposure to the myth traditions of other cultures is essential to encouraging our kids to see through the myths of their own. This first volume bodes well for the series by deeming the story sufficient to stand on its own without gimcrackery and cheese. Part II has been released as well, with a third installment due in June. I am grateful to know that my kids will have yet another imaginative world revealed to them. The fact that this one also unlocks the origins of Western literature adds satisfaction to an already thrilling read. Last of all: who can resist a book on the Odyssey illustrated by someone named Troy? Next month's review will continue the theme of myth retellings for children with D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths and others for junior high and high school-aged readers. |
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