Isis and Osiris

by Dawn Casey, Diana Mayo (Illustrator)

Book by Casey, Dawn

Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Dawn Casey traveled in Africa and Asia before working in a garden studio, publishing multicultural children's books. She now dreams up her own stories, inspired by the everyday magic of the world. She lives with her husband, two little ones, and a tabby cat.

Reviews

[Nicola O · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly the illustrations are fabulous and I believe children would really enjoy them. This book is based on a very ancient Egyptian myth; however, this story had been translated into Somali. When I read this book it had both Somali and English on each page which would be an excellent resource for bilingual children or for children who were learning an additional language. At the back of the book it also stated that it was available in 23 other languages, which is excellent. This colourful book is based on the ancient story of two brothers named Osiris and Set. Osiris was the good brother who preferred peace and Set on the other hand preferred war and was very evil. During this time Ra ruled on earth as the first Pharaoh of Egypt. This book would be brilliant in history and if you were focusing on ancient Egypt as a topic for a term. I think it is important to be aware of this book and others similar to it because it would be helpful when teaching modern foreign languages. It is available in Polish, Russian, Arabic, Spanish and Turkish just to name a few of the languages.

[Karma · Rating 4 out of 5]

"With a single slice Horus cut off the head, and hacked the body to pieces."

This shows that Horus the main enemy dies at the end, and this quotation captures the feelings of many because it's like a good moment because Horus suffered a lot because of set at the end when set died Horus won't have to suffer anymore.

I would recommend this book to people who like to read about greek because this book is about

[529_Quincy Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Isis and Osiris is retold by Dawn Casey and illustrated by Nilesh Mistry. Isis and Osiris is a mythological story which explains many daily practices Egyptians have become famous for today. Osiris, the first king of Egypt was also the first to be mummified, starting tradition future kings followed. Isis the first queen of Egypt caused the Nile explains why the natural phenomena occurred. The book I read was written in Hindi and English. The publisher also offers the story in a few other languages like, “English with Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Croatian...” The illustrations seem authentically designed emphasizing the angles of limbs and architecture of the time. I was impressed by the artist attention to detail surround the black make-up they wore around their eyes. Traditionally, in story books I have seen there has never been any difference in their eyes because of the make-up. The illustrator in this story managed to differentiate the drawing of the eyes despite this mask and the eyes of most of his drawings seem to express different emotions; sorrow, regret, anger, and joy.

I think this is a wonderful story to cover beginning in the 4th grade. There is the matter of body mutilation, brotherly betrayal, and death which needs to be addressed within a mature classroom. In America we generally do not introduce topics like this so early in our student’s education. Teachers should be prepared for parental response.