Parents looking for a good myth book for young listeners and readers should consider this one – one of the very best of the many successors to D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths (in the US) and Roger Lancelyn Green’s various anthologies (in the UK). Unlike re-tellers who ground their myths in accounts of the divine pantheon or lives of the heroes, Lucy Coats provides a human frame story. Atticus is a sandal maker and storyteller from the island of Crete -- a place associated in classical antiquity with made-up tales. He sets out to compete at a great festival in Troy, telling stories as he goes, and returns home as victor. His repertoire includes most of the main Greek myths usually included in collections for children, but (as befits the frame), the stories are told separately, though their teller may indicate continuity from one to another. In a tradition that goes back to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (1851), each is given a fairytale-like title and is then identified in more traditional way: “The Runaway Sun/Phaeton;” “The Monster in the Maze /Theseus;” “The Girl Who Ran Fastest/Atalanta and the Golden Apples.”  Parents and children can pick and choose, according to their interests. The final 25 stories are taken from the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Coats is herself a good storyteller; her narratives are well-constructed and well-paced, with vivid descriptions and effective dialogue. She writes in expressive and accessible contemporary English that avoids old-fashioned language but is not overly colloquial. Her versions are well designed for reading aloud, but children old enough to read to themselves should enjoy them too. Every page includes an illustration, some full-page, some vignettes, and Anthony Lewis’s images are engaging, memorable, and child-friendly without being too cartoonish. – Deborah Roberts