The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths by Padraic Colum - ADVISABLE

The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths by Padraic Colum, 271 pages. Aladdin (Simon & Schuster), 2011. $19. 

Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: PG.

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE   

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

Jumping right into the plot rich stories of Norse mythology, the author skips the basics and simply orients the reader to the characters and places as needed. Stories about the gods of Asgard encompass the first section, with a heavy focus on Loki. Each story is linked to the next through at least one character, but all of the stories also work as stand alones. 

I am inclined to say that the dated language style of these stories will lose a lot of readers, but this was the first full length book that my son has read cover to cover and stayed engaged the entire time. Norse mythology has that effect, but the short length of these chapters and the way the author connects one story to the next and provides some chronological sequencing to a complicated timeline was helpful. Worth noting is that one of the illustrations at the beginning of a chapter does have a woman with her breasts exposed.