Great way to introduce the classics and literature to boys

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	• Black Ships Before Troy Rosemary Sutcliff Laurel Leaf, 2005 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Beautifully Conceived

Black Ships Before Troy is a marvelous retelling of the story of the Trojan War. The book goes beyond The Iliad to include the stories leading up to the war and what happens after the Iliad closes with the burial of Hector. Rosemary Sutcliff has managed to capture the feel of the Homeric epics in her retelling of Troy, and Alan Lee's illustrations beautifully illuminate the text. The illustrations include scenes depicting Menelaus and Paris fighting and the battle between Ajax and Hector (when Hector has been knocked down by a huge stone) but also smaller embellishments, such as the stylized lion head that appears at the end of a chapter.

I have a Classical Studies degree and have read the ancient epics from the time I was a teenager; the interest that my initial discovery of the Trojan War instilled in me was recalled when I picked up a copy of this book. The dust cover says that the book is for all ages; I think adults whose only contact with the story of Troy is the film with Brad Pitt would find this book highly interesting and learn much about the story of the war that films cannot portray. Black Ships Before Troy was created with a beautiful feel for the story and I hope that the children who read this book would be inspired to someday read the Iliad and Odyssey. This is the kind of book that one wants to keep and recommend to others.

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Great way to introduce the classics and literature to boys

I read "Black Ships Before Troy" and "The Wanderings of Odysseus" to my then 8-year-old son, who was enthralled by both. Rosemary Sutcliff's prose is rich and lyrical, and the illustrations in our copies (by Alan Lee) were beautiful.

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Black Ships Before Troy (Hardback edition)

I have read several versions of The Iliad and after checking this book out from the library, decided this was the one I wanted in my permanent library. The illustrations (in the hardback version) are really beautiful and emotive and the story itself has maintained the integrity of the original with the fluency of language even young children can understand. Highly recommended.

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Fantastic retelling of the Iliad

I'm reading this to my daughter, who loves the story. Some of the writing is a little complex for a first grader to understand, but this version has a beauty to the poetry of the writing that the DK version, though straightforward and more easily understood, does not.

Highly recommended.

We love it

Hello,

We love this book....The artwork is fantastic and the kids really love it when it is time for me to read to them.....They beg me to keep going when we start....I stop every once in a while to reword some of what I have read so they are completely understanding what I am reading....For the most part they get it......Then they illustrate pictures for me and write some written words to go with what they have just heard....Completly enthralled....

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The Story of the Iliad

Homer's epic poem, The Illiad, is one of the greatest adventure stories of all time. In it, the abduction of the legendary beauty, Helen of Troy, leads to a conflict in which even the gods and goddesses take sides and intervene. It is in the Trojan War that the most valiant heroes of the ancient world are pitted against one another. Here Hectore, Ajax, Achilles, and Odysseus meet their most formidable challenges and in some casas their tragic ends.

Rosemary Sutcliff makes such extraordinary stories as those of those Trojan horse, of Aphrodite and the golden apple, and of the fearsome warrior women Amazons, accessible to contemporary young people.

From the Hardcover edition.

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