The Crystal Pool: Myths and Legends of the World

by Geraldine McCaughrean

With stories such as "The Silver Treasure," "The Golden Hoard," and "The Bronze Cauldron," a collection of more than twenty tales presents young readers with a collection of stories, legends, and myths from around the world.

Genres: Mythology, Childrens

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Geraldine McCaughrean is a British children's novelist. She has written more than 170 books, including Peter Pan in Scarlet (2004), the official sequel to Peter Pan commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the holder of Peter Pan's copyright. Her work has been translated into 44 languages worldwide. She has received the Carnegie Medal twice and the Michael L. Printz Award among others.

Reviews

[Chris Evans]

The Crystal Pool: Myths and Legends of the World by author Geraldine McCaughrean is a collection of folklore from many different countries. There are about thirty stories in the book from almost as many countries. Each story takes from two to four pages and all have illustrations. The illustrations were not bad but they were nothing spectacular either. They were mostly around a third of a page, in color and clearly done. They all looked the same though and did not have any flavor of the places the stories came from. Some of the stories like The Pied Piper and also Isis and Osiris. Some were completely new but others had a hint of familiarity as if I have heard either a similar story or the same story a long time ago. I dislike the use of the word myth because some of these stories are stories from the religious beliefs of people and myth invokes ideas that you are reading fiction and not religious stories. I cannot see the bible ever being called a book of myths. This would be great for story time seeing that it is divided into so many parts. If used in classrooms teachers must be aware of the different cultures of their students as to not insult or degrade their culture, family or religion. The book will certainly draw together many cultures because I am sure seeing that all stories can be so connected the children will sense some familiarity with these.