About Calliope’s Library:
Calliope’s Library seeks to help readers find books that they will love that are about the ancient world or inspired by it. There are books in this collection about Greco-Roman mythology, ancient history, and ancient culture. Most books focus on the ancient Mediterranean, but many are inspired by nearby cultures such as Mesopotamia and Roman Britain. Some books are set in the present day and some in ancient times. Use the filter buttons to find books that appeal to you or your young reader. The descriptions in the buttons are meant to help you find books that you like, rather than to divide books to rigid groups. Think of them as guides rather than strict categories.
The write-ups for books are reviewed by a board of book lovers who are also scholars of ancient history and culture. However, the opinions expressed within the write-ups are the opinions of individual reviewers. If you or a young reader that you know would like to share your own opinion of a book, please send us a write-up of your own!
Origins:
This project grew out of a series of social media conversations about what books to buy for kids as presents. During the Classics Everywhere Roundtable at the 2021 virtual meeting of the Society for Classical Studies, Diane Arnson Svarlien voiced the need for a larger, permanent collection of recommendations, and the many of those present agreed. This project is the result of the conversations that continued after that initial call, and the continuous support of Nina Papathanasopoulou, the SCS’s Public Engagement Coordinator, and the work of the Classics Everywhere initiative, now renamed the Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities initiative.
Partners:
This site draws inspiration from the Our Mythical Childhood Survey, which is part of the project “Our Mythical Childhood," led by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales,” University of Warsaw, Poland, with the participation of Bar Ilan University, University of New England, University of Roehampton, University of Yaoundé 1, and other affiliated scholars. The project “Our Mythical Childhood” has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement No 681202); see: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/.
People
Krishni Burns
Krishni Burns is the Project Coordinator for Calliope’s Library. She is a Senior Lecturer of Classics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, US. Her main areas of study are ancient religion and the lives of women in Republican Rome, as well as the expression of classical myth in children’s popular culture. Krishni is a participant in the European Research Council project Our Mythical Childhood, and an active member of the Committee on Ancient and Modern Performance (CAMP). She has over twenty years experience working in public and school libraries, including building the school library at a new secondary school in San Antonio.
Diane Arnson Svarlien
Nava Cohen
Dr. Diane Arnson Svarlien is a verse translator and Classicist who has authored three collections of translations of the plays of Euripides with Hackett Publishing (Ion, Helen, Orestes, 2016; Andromache, Hecuba, Trojan Women, 2012; Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus, 2007). Her volume of verse translations of Aristophanes’ plays Lysistrata, Women at the Thesmophoria, Frogs, is forthcoming from Hackett. Dr. Arnson Svarlien lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where she runs a book-giveaway and read-aloud program for kids from low-income neighborhoods and families.
Nava Cohen is currently a doctoral student in comparative literature and Classics at Northwestern University. Nava spent twenty-five years teaching Latin to students in all grades of elementary school in the Chicagoland area. She is the chair of the American Classical League's Exploratory Latin Exam and serves as a member of their Middle School Committee. Nava plays numerous roles within the Illinois Classics community, including as a member of the planning committee of the ICC/NLU Latin Pedagogy Workshop. Her research interests include the pedagogy of reading Latin and Greek and the reception of ancient literature in contemporary adolescent fiction.
Sarah Klitenic Wear
Dr. Sarah Klitenic Wear (BA Classics, The University of Chicago; PhD Classics, Trinity College, Dublin) is a professor of Classics at Franciscan University of Steubenville. While she writes books and articles on Neoplatonism, she has a special love for children's literature and K-12 Latin teaching.
Rebecca Resinski
Dr. Rebecca Resinski is a professor of classics at Hendrix College. In 2013-2014 she returned to graduate school and earned a graduate certificate in children's literature from the Pennsylvania State University. Some of her work on the intersection of classics and children's literature is collected at pegasus-reception.com.
Deborah H. Roberts
Dr. Deborah H. Roberts is Professor Emerita of Classics and Comparative Literature at Haverford College; her recent work is concerned primarily with classical reception and translation studies. She is the author of numerous articles on the construction of the ancient Greco-Roman world and its culture in children’s literature, and is co-author with Sheila Murnaghan of Childhood and the Classics: Britain and America, 1850-1965.
Samuel Huskey
Dr. Samuel Huskey of University of Oklahoma will be building the portions of the website that will not be visible to the public. He has over 20 years of experience in web development, including nearly a decade as the Information Architect of the Society for Classical Studies.
Melissa Funke
Bio forthcoming
Carolivia Herron
Bio forthcoming
Sheila Murnaghan
Bio forthcoming
FAQs
Who recommends the books?
Anyone can recommend books via the form in the “Recommend More” tab. Recommendations are reviewed by our team of classical scholars and parents. If a book receives two recommendations, or if it is endorsed independently by one of our team members, it goes on the list of “Books To Be Written Up.”
Can I recommend a book?
Yes! No matter what your age, experience, or background, we want to hear from you! You can use the form on the “Recommend More” page, or email Krishni Burns (ksburns@uic.edu) directly.
Can I write up a book?
Absolutely! We’d like to hear from as many voices as possible, so we allow for multiple write-ups. You can visit the “To Be Written Up” page for more information.
Do you only post positive reviews?
Yes, since this is a site for recommending books. However, we do acknowledge the flaws that even the best of books might have. If you honestly love a book but know that it might not be for every reader, or that it has some faults that potential readers should know about, then include that in your recommendation. We’ll give it serious consideration.
How do you assess books? Do they have to be accurate to ancient history or myth?
Books about myth don’t have to match the ancient sources (after all, ancient sources don’t match each other) but they should engage with myth in interesting ways. Nonfiction books should be accurate, with allowances made for the age of the reader. Fictional books don’t have to be 100% accurate, as long as they are good books that make interesting choices.
What kind of books do you recommend?
All kinds, from board books to YA, and all genres. We don’t recommend textbooks, but otherwise we’re open to anything.
What counts as “ancient”?
Anything from the Mesopotamians to the Romans. We consider books set before 600 CE/AD, or books that are set in any time but are inspired by the ancient world, like the Percy Jackson books. Most of our books are inspired by the ancient Greeks and Romans, but we consider books from the wider Mediterranean world as well, such as the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians, and the Phoenicians, and Mediterranean adjacent cultures, such as peoples of Roman Britain. If you aren’t sure if your book would be right for our collection, just ask!
Do your recommend books about religious subject matter, such as biblical stories or Jewish history?
We might, if they are about ancient culture. However, we are not qualified to assess books on their theological merit. Instead, we will assess such recommendations on their literary excellence.