This is a children’s Greek mythology book, one that was read to me as a child. A large book with a unique yellow cover and bent, frayed corners. Everytime I open it up, memories of all the stories come rushing back as I look at its distinct artwork, about the excitement of discovering new myths and remembering all my favorite stories that I’ve already read. My most loved story is about a boy who saved baby snakes and raised them after their mother had died. To thank him the snakes licked his ears so clean that he could understand animals. He was later arrested and once in a jail cell he heard termites talking about how they would eat through the last of the ceiling by morning. He stayed up all night making a ruckus, demanding that the guards move him. When they did, his former cell’s ceiling collapsed. Impressed with this the guards took him to see the king whose son was ill. By listening to some birds he learned a tree nymph had cursed the boy. He then made a potion and cured the boy. I loved this story because it made me wonder about all the information animals communicate with each other. I also love snakes so raising snakes seemed awesome to me. This book opened the gateway of my interests to many more mythologies, such as Norse and Egyptian. Because of the love of Greek mythology D'aulaire imparted on me, I took two years of ancient Greek in middle school and got a perfect score on the national mythology exam. 

– AM

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