Kalevala: Tales of Magic and Adventure

"Better for me in the ocean,

dwelling deep beneath the waters;

be a sister to the whitefish,

sibling to the deep-sea creatures,

than be comfort to a dotard,

or to nurse a trembling codger."

- Rune 4: lines 247-252

Odd and the Frost Giants

Book Details:

• Written by Neil Gaiman (Who also wrote The Graveyard Book and Coraline.)
• Illustrated by Brett Helquist (who also illustrated for The Series of Unfortunate Events and Chasing Vermeer.)
• Published by HarperCollins (who also published Herbert's Wormhole.)

Important Things to Know:

• Even if you have a disability, like a hurt leg, you can still have adventures.
• There are three main Norse gods in this story: Odin, Thor, and Loki.
• Norse mythology is awesome.
• This story is really very short, but still very good!

Why Wombly and I Enjoyed This Book:

• Mainly, it was about Norse mythology.
• Not only did it contain Norse mythology, but it was a well-researched story with Norse mythology.
• Odd is adorable.
• Odd carries the viking spirit and doesn't let bad things stop him from being a warrior and a lover of life.

Wombly and I Read This Book Because:

• I enjoyed reading The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland.
• I enjoyed Coraline and Wolves in the Walls and MirrorMask by Neil Gaiman.
• I love Brett Helquist. I love his style. He's one of those illustrators where even if I don't know who the author is I will try reading the book because I love him so much. (ALSO: I didn't realize it but Brett Helquist did the cover art for Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge, which is one of my personal favorites, and was also published by HarperCollins.)

You Can Find This Book At:

• Barnes & Noble
• Books-a-Million
• Or an Indie Bookstore near you!

Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

I am a big fan of Greek Mythology. I had this awesome teacher in college and even on days when it was 150 degrees outside I was in his classroom completely enthralled. So one day I am fixing the YA Science Fiction section like we did 600 times a day and this book catches my eye. The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter.

Kate Winters is your normal teenage girl. Except she is driving cross country with her mother to her mothers home town where she wishes to spend the last of her days. They are terribly numbered due to the horrible disease of cancer. She meets James, nerd extraordinaire and Ava Queen Bee of the local high school.

After some very bad things done on Ava's part, Kate ends up at Eden Manor with the ever delicious Henry. Who says that he is Hades. I am just saying if a man Tall..Dark..Mysterious..and Breathtaking tells me he is Hades I just might walk out on my life and tell him to call me his Persephone. Maybe I read too many Romance novels.

Its one of my favorite part of Harlequin Teen is they do Romance but not over the top. It can be sickly sweet but Aimee Carter does its beautifully. Its sweet and fitting for the age of the characters. Bravo Aimee Carter, you give me faith in our generation!

I am getting off topic. Kate now has to make a choice, a life with Henry and ruling the underworld with him or to walk away from Eden Manor. But if she chooses to stay with Henry she must pass the tests. No one knows what they are nor will she know when they are happening. If she passes she will be given immortality, and if not...well I am sure you get the picture.

This book is very well rounded and I cannot wait for Book 3 to be released.  I believe the 967 heart attacks I have waiting for Goddess Inheritance to come out will be billed directly to Aimee herself.

You can buy Goddess Test here Barnes and Noble , Books A Million , and Chapters

Forgotten Awesomosities: Icelandic Sagas and Tolkien

I completely almost forgot about this post, and so I ran online and was going to write about the first things I could think of.

The first thing I thought of was David Hume. But I'm not going to write about that. That would be boring and I would end up hitting things. Instead I'm going to talk about one of those awesome things that usually get forgotten about. I call them Aesomeosities.

Not a lot of people - that I have met, anyhow - have read Icelandic sagas. The titles are usually long and hard to pronounce, and are they history or fiction? No one's really sure. So people read Greek myths because they're everywhere, or look at Egyptian art because they're easily accessible. Now, I'm not saying anything is wrong with the Greeks or Egyptians, well... I'm sure something was wrong about them. Most civilizations had at least one thing wrong with them. But that is not the point. There are times when truly awesome things get lost among the blur of shinier more accessible just as awesome things. One of those things - I believe - are Icelandic sagas.

While working at Borders I came across this hunkin' baby: The Sagas of the Icelanders. It's put out by Penguin and it's massive. It's like, at least four inches thick. Sadly it's not a very heavy book, so you can't use it as a weapon, but regardless it is still fantastic. You are definitely getting your money's worth. There are introductions to each saga to try and help contextualize the following saga because I will warn you now: EVERYONE HAS THE SAME STINKING NAME. Okay. Actually, there's like five to ten names, but still. It can get quite confusing. But the Icelandic people have this wonderful subtle humor that is my favorite kind. There are some parts that can be a little bit confusing, or moves a little bit slowly, so I'm not saying these sagas are for everyone. But they definitely deserve a wider audience then they have theretofore received.

Theretofore. Heehee... That word is totally a cheat. It's squashing three words together and calling it a new word. English is hilarious.

Anyway! But there are other parts that move forward so quickly. There are adventures. And people are killing each other all over the place, so there's fighting and there's blood and there's revenge. And I'm not exactly a feminist, but I do have to say, it was quite fun to have strong women characters who could kick butt. There were quite a few women the men were afraid of. Sure, they pretend not to be, but everyone knew you did not cross an Icelandic woman, or there would be a reckoning.

Shortly after finishing this lovely collection of sagas I read this book: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. It's by JRR Tolkien, my favoritest man ever. It's extremely sad that he's dead or I would find him and capture him and make him tell me stories. Ahem. Anyway. This book you will usually find in the sci-fi/fantasy section. Let me be very clear about this: THAT IS WRONG. It is a travesty. This is not really fiction. This is, mostly, a translation. As in, it belongs in the history section. Or the linguistics section. Of the mythology and folklore section. But because Tolkien was known for The Lord of the Rings this book gets shoved in next to the Silmarillion and The Hobbit, which, don't get me wrong, I love both of those books, but JRR Tolkien was not purely a fiction writer. He was a scholar. He taught at Oxford (or something like that). He studied philology. He studied linguistics. He... Ahem. Anyway. This translation and re-imagining of one of the saga stories is a whole lot of fun. And the kind of poetry form he is using is really hard to do. Most people don't. But that's how much Tolkien cared about the Icelandic heritage.

Because the Icelandic heritage is important. Yes, so is Greek heritage, and Egyptian heritage, and don't get me started on Sumer. However, oftentimes I feel like the Icelandic tradition gets thrown out of the loop because it's not pure myth, it's not pure history. It's the awkward child. But just like awkward children can be some of the most entertaining, most insightful of individuals, so can the Icelandic Sagas. Trust me. They are so worth reading. And if the giant penguin collection scares you, don't worry. They generally come in very small selections so that you can ease yourself into it, or just get a taste of what this culture and literary tradition has to offer. It's totally worth it, because Icelandic Sagas are wonderful Awesomosities.

D'Auliere's

"In olden times when men still worshipped ugly idols, thee lived in the land of Greece a folk of shepherds and herdsmen who cherished lighe and beauty. They . . . created . . . their own beautiful, radiant gods . . . . Mortals worshipped the gods and the gods honored Mother Earth."

from the Introduction

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths is a fascinating read concerning the mythology of Greek gods. When my children and I studied Greece,we enjoyed reading this book together. The authors deliver the facts and details about Greek gods in an easy to understand format. The stories are written in such a way that all ages can enjoy them and learn from them.

We were introduced to the Titans, to Zeus and his family, to the minor gods, nymphs, satyrs and centaurs. They also write of some of the Greek kings, one of which is Sisyphus of Corinth. You can read how he fooled the gods and cheated death twice. You have heard the term "bored to death. Did you know it came from Greek mythology? You can read this story about Hermes and Argos is this book.

I think this is a must-have book for every home school family and for anyone interested in mythology. Pick up a copy at a local bookstore or check it out of the library. Have fun!