From Kirkus Reviews:
McCaughrean (The Odyssey, 1995, etc.) makes good on the subtitle--``Myths and Legends of the World''--with 22 exploits by the likes of Coyote, the Polynesian trickster Maui, Robin Hood, and St. George, all trippingly retold in a modern idiom: `` `Look out, here comes Quetzalcoatl,' said the Sun, glowering, lowering, his red rimmed eyes livid.'' Whether writing in a traditional, heroic vein, as in her tale of El Cid's final battle, or with the rap rhythm of the West Indian ``Anansi and the Mind of God,'' McCaughrean's voice is distinctive, and she puts her own spin on some stories, adding an ironic ending to the Sumerian ``Man Who Almost Lived Forever,'' and emphasizing the feminism in a Kikuyu tale of gender conflict. The illustrations are awkwardly drawn but vibrantly colored; Willey suggests each tale's source with culturally characteristic patterns and fashions, but the neoprimitive figures and compressed compositions have less impact than her slashes of red and orange, undulating blues and rich greens. While most of these tales are available elsewhere (some in other versions by McCaughrean), this is an unusually well-knit, wide-ranging gathering. Brief, nonspecific source notes are appended. (Folklore. 10-13) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From Booklist:
Gr. 4^-6, younger for reading aloud. As in her wonderful Greek Myths (1993), McCaughrean retells some of the world's oldest myths and legends for a contemporary audience. Much of the spirit and beauty of the originals is here, but there's not much attention paid to sources, beyond a brief note on each story. McCaughrean says that stories change with each teller to suit the listener and that she has sometimes drawn on just "the briefest passing references in dusty old volumes." There's little to unify these 22 stories: from a comic version of King Midas who wanted to be a millionaire to the lyrical Mexican myth of Quetzacoatl who fetched music out of Heaven, this is a resource anthology for reading aloud or storytelling and for readers to dip into for themselves, one story at a time. Mixed media illustrations in brilliantly colored folk-art style extend the action, romance, and magic of the stories. What's irresistible here is the storytelling voice ("Her lover had chosen to marry someone else, and her heart was a rock within her, heavy and hard" ). The combination of the colloquial and the poetic, the immediate and the mysterious makes you know that myth is about all of us. Hazel Rochman
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