This detailed version of the myth of Jason and the Argonauts is perfect for older primary school readers who love mythology and want to know the traditional story. Author and illustrator Robert Byrd researched the myth carefully, reading both ancient sources, including the Argonautica, and modern children’s retellings such as D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. Almost every event from the ancient myth is part of this version. (Don’t worry, though: the many murders are all here, but they happen pretty quickly, off the page.) The Argonauts fight off six armed giants, gluttonous harpies, and Stymphalian birds within the first twenty pages, all before they actually reach the land of the golden fleece. That leaves plenty of space for bronze mechanical giants, nautical monsters Scylla and Charybdis, and a boat-sized hippocampus on the way home. Altogether, it makes for an extremely exciting adventure story.  

On each page, Byrd crams in extra facts about the gods and monsters of ancient myth. My favorite page was a catalog of twelve of the super-powered Argonauts, complete with images and a short description of why they were famous. The illustrations are gorgeous; rich, colorful, and stuffed with detail. Byrd based his drawings on Greek vase painting, and he even includes orange and black images of the gods in small in-sets that give extra information. His Argo is based on actual ancient ships, and his monsters are line-perfect renditions of his ancient source material. I wish the characters didn’t all look so northern European, but other than that Byrd does an incredible job. 

Byrd’s dedication to his ancient source extends to the story’s ending. Rather than shy away from Jason’s and Medea’s crimes, he chooses instead to highlight that the myth is a story about heroic deeds, but also treachery and vengeance. Actions have consequences in this version of Jason and the Argonauts, and that’s a lesson everyone should learn.  – Krishni Burns

* For further information on the Our Mythical Childhood Survey, please refer to the website of the project “Our Mythical Childhood” [link: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/], 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, within the funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement No 681202).