Audiobook1 hour
The Beautiful Stories of Life: Six Greeks Myths, Retold
Written by Cynthia Rylant
Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
()
About this audiobook
Winner of the Newbery Medal, Cynthia Rylant has also received the Caldecott Award and numerous other honors. In The Beautiful Stories of Life, Rylant vividly retells the Greek myths of Pandora, Pygmalion, Narcissus, Perse-phone, Orpheus, and Psyche. Exploring classic themes of love, destruction, vanity, and redemption, these tales will introduce young readers to the exciting world of Greek mythology.
Author
Cynthia Rylant
Cynthia Rylant is a Newbery medalist and the author of many acclaimed books for young people. She's well known for her popular characters for early readers, including Mr. Putter & Tabby and Henry & Mudge. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. cynthiarylant.com
More audiobooks from Cynthia Rylant
A Fine White Dust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Relatives Came Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rosetown Summer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Beautiful Stories of Life
Related audiobooks
Crictor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Turtle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wainscott Weasel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Dragons: Volume 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Octopus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reluctant Dragon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tomten Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Famous Stories Every Child Should Know Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tindims and the Ten Green Bottles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoppy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tindims and the Turtle Tangle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMary Engelbreit's Mother Goose: One-Hundred Best Loved Verses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of Doctor Dolittle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fancy Nancy: Too Many Tutus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frog Went A-Courtin' Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Firefly Hollow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Princess Cora and the Crocodile Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selections From the Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of the Snowy Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Witch Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl Who Loved Wild Horses / Crazy Horses Vision Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paperboy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strawberry Hill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whale Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Story Of The Amulet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crow Boy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsToo Small Tola Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5More Stories from Beatrix Potter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Twelve Dancing Princesses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Children's For You
The Mouse and the Motorcycle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hold a Cockroach: A book for those who are free and don't know it Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anne of Green Gables Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pax Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Stories of God, Goddesses, Heroes & Monsters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Bear Called Paddington Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mockingjay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Out of My Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Velveteen Rabbit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Projekt 1065: A Novel of World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Heir (Wings of Fire #2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Catching Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Multi-Voice, A: The Bad Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Island of the Blue Dolphins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Kid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: Thinking, Fast and Slow: by Daniel Kahneman: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Included Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ground Zero Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Writing: Four Principles for Great Writing that Everyone Needs to Know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Series of Unfortunate Events #2: The Reptile Room Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Degrees Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secret Garden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bridge to Terabithia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amari and the Night Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Beautiful Stories of Life
Rating: 3.2499999249999996 out of 5 stars
3/5
24 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Mercifully short. But every third sentence jarred.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book retells 6 myths of the Greek mythology stories of life. The book discusses Pandora, Persephone, Orpheus, Pygmalion, Narcissus, and Psyche. I particularly enjoyed this book, because most of the information presented was new to me! I know very little about mythology in general, so I was very intrigued by the content. I think the book was well written for 5, 6 and 7 graders to grasp the concept of the myth, without having to have prior knowledge about mythology. My favorite of these stories was the one about Pandora's box; and the importance of patience, and not always giving in to desire. I think the language is very whimsical, and the illustrations, while sparing, are quite pretty and definitely add to the myths.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This beautiful, though small, collection of Greek Myths cover the basics of life and love in the ancient greek belief system. The sparse, though lovely, illustrations complement the storytelling. Stories included: Pandora, Persephone, Orpheus, Pygmalion, Narcissus, and Psyche.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This book presents six greek myths ranging from why darkness and hope are a part of the world to the danger of extreme obsession to fighting battles inside ones self. Each myth is written plainly and accompanied with a few drawings to help communicate the story.Genre: MythsCritique: This book is a good example of myths because they portray themselves as stories of the distant past and try to explain the origin of inexplainable events and relationships between gods and humans. For example, in the first myth, Pandora, the story tries to explain the origin of suffering and hope and the relationship between the gods, man and woman.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Many of these myths have a morbid quality about them that may shock a child, such as death because of self-destructiveness and selfishness even when love is there in the example of the myth “Narcissus.” The art is culturally aligned I feel since it’s supposed to go hand in hand with something that has been around a long time from ancient Greek culture. So, it would make sense that these illustrations would be in gray, black and white and pencil drawn with a lot of details to help the child’s mind keep them in focus. With the pencil line detail like I described, that I described, there is a lot of drawing around words, like tall reeds, simple flowers, and bullfrogs. In the myth “Pandora’s Box” there is a full realistic sketch of Pandora and Zeus, with Zeus giving Pandora her box. I feel the art is chosen carefully and not overdone. It has a very Eden-like quality and the characters all wear togas.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Six myths are retold in this book; Pandora, Persephone, Orpheus, Pygmalion, Narcissus and Psyche, the beautiful Greek myths are simplified to a form that talks down to the reader and does a disservice to the myths. Clearly the author hopes that this will make them more accessible but instead its rather jarring to read the sort of repetition that would feel more comfortable in a picture book in a almost chaptered book. A disappointing read from a book that held a great amount of possibility since the vocabulary is possible for an early reader of about 10 or 12 but the style of writing is not interesting and so the stories lose their interest. The illustrations that are added are not colorful and don't have much action to them so they don't really add anything to the story. Overall this is a disappointing book.