Young Zeus by G. Brian Karas


Title: Young Zeus
Author/Illustrator: G. Brian Karas
Genre: Traditional Literature, Fiction
Age: 8-12

This is the story of how young Zeus became ruler of the heaven and earth, and had his family right by side. It all started when Zeus' mother Rhea took her son to an island in Crete to be protected from his evil father. He lived a beautiful life and was protected by a goat, who was enchanted she-goat named Amaltheia. He lived out most of his childhood on this island unbeknowest his about what is father's plans where. Over time Zeus wondered why he had no one to play with and Amaltheia told him the story behind his father and why he was on this island. She told him that he had 12 children who were giants, also known as Titans, and that Cronus, his father, loved them very much, he also had 3 children who were Cyclopes, and six of whom were monsters, known as Hundred-Handers, he didn't love them very much and had them locked in the underworld forever. His grandmother cast him off the throne, Cronus knew that only a blood relative could take the throne, so to stop that from happening he swallowed his children whole and they lived in his stomach. His mother tricked him and gave him a blanket covering a rock and pretended it was Zeus, and he swallowed it up not realizing anything.
As Zeus got older he became more and more troubled about his evil father, and knew he had to free his brothers and sisters. One day when he was in a terrible mood, while his mom was onlooking from the shadows he had a fit and threw a mountaintop into the sea. His mother introduced herself and together they devised a plan to overthrow Cronus and free his siblings. When Cronus was sleeping Zeus slipped a poison down his throat which caused him to "throw up" his siblings, once free they all beat Cronus. Once they finished, Zeus knew he had to free the monsters and Cyclopes, because they were also his family. He slipped the dragon some sweets which distracted him. Zeus freed his uncles and they, along with his siblings defeated the Titans. The Cyclopes gave Zeus a bundle of thunderbolts to help him defeat the Titans. Once they were defeated there was a disagreement about who would rule all and Zeus shouted and claimed he was ruler and made himself the boss essentially and that's how he became the ruler of all, with the help of his family.
I think this book is perfect in a way for children who have older siblings and want to be in control and the "leader".  I think this best fits grade levels 1st - 3rd, since that's when young students like to be the center of attention, especially if they have older siblings, or if they're in the middle and get bossed around by their younger siblings.
- Peace. Love. Giraffes.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Childhood Book Memories

Image
     I have had a great experience with reading and keeping my mind active growing up. During the summer, my mom frequently put me in summer reading programs, and I read many different books, genres, and authors, at times it was required for school, other times, she just wanted to make sure that I was being active mentally, and not regressing with my education. She even bought me different work books so that I could do them and she would check them and give feedback on what I had done to help me get better.     Which books I've actually read is a little bit harder to remember because there were a lot. I did get into John Grisham books at a young age, and I frequently read his books ( A Time To Kill , Sycamore Row , The Runaway Jury , just to name a few). Crime and mystery fascinate me a lot and he writes them in such great detail that I feel like I'm there, and I think in some other form I wanted to be a lawyer or something in the legal field, however I don...
Read more

The Rooster Prince of Breslov by Ann Redisch Stampler

Image
Title: The Rooster Prince of Breslov Author/Illustrator: Ann Redisch Stampler/ Eugene Yelchin Genre: Folklore Age: 5-7 years old This book is based off a Yiddish folktale, and deals with a young, spoiled prince, who assumes the likeness and characteristics of a rooster, until one week and old man spends seven days with him and shows him how he can mature. The book starts out with this young prince who essentially had more than he could ever want and need, nice meals, people waiting on him hand and foot. Until one day during his lavish lifestyle he had, had enough and starting acting like a rooster. He had taken off his clothes and started clucking about the palace, he pecked at things like a rooster, hunched over like a rooster and believed himself that he was a rooster. He wouldn't utter a single human word and wouldn't get dressed when his parents asked him to. They had a doctor come see him and he had said he had a case of roosterism which wasn't really real. So s...
Read more

The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone

Image
Title: The Three Billy Goats Gruff Author/Illustrator: Paul Galdone Genre: Fairy Tales; Fiction Age: 4-7 This book is about three goats who walked over this bridge and they each get stopped by this troll who wants to eat these billy goats, and how they outsmarted him. They lived on a hillside and were hungry and wanted to get fat the only way to do so was to cross the bridge, which was over a rushing river and a Troll lived underneath it. The first Billy Goat Gruff was tiny and small and warned that a bigger goat was coming along and that he would fill him up, rather than a tiny goat. So the Troll let him go free. Then came along the second slightly larger Billy Goat Gruff and as he was crossing the bridge the Troll stopped him as well. He said he was going to eat him up, but the second billy goat, like the first one warned that a bigger billy goat was coming along and would fill up the Troll. So the Troll let him go as well. Along comes the third and biggest billy goat and like t...
Read more