Giants

by John Malam

Este livro ilustrado apresenta gigantes de todos os tempos e suas histórias de lutas com os grandes heróis da mitologia, como Odisseu e Hércules, da mitologia grega; e Thor, da mitologia escandinava. Há também a lenda de Baba Yaga, contada na Rússia, na Polônia e na República Checa, uma bruxa comedora de carne humana, de caninos afiados e nariz adunco que transforma uma pessoa em pedra apenas com o olhar; e, claro, a lenda do Sasquatch, também conhecido como Pé Grande, da mitologia norte-americana.

Genres: Nonfiction

32 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2009

About the author

John Malam is a British historian, archaeologist, and author of children’s non-fiction books. Trained in Ancient History and Archaeology, he worked on excavations and led an archaeology unit before becoming an editor and later a full-time writer specializing in ancient civilizations.

Reviews

[Karura Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro corto, enfocado para niños (el libro marca que a partir de los 8 años), es introductorio, da algo de información, pero no profundiza mucho en cada una. Me parece bueno para llamar la atención y buscar mas textos después.

Es el primer libro de gigantes que leo, principalmente me interesan mas las hadas y duendes; pero al ser una colección de 4 pequeños libros y que están muy baratos, me decidí a leerlo. Me agrado, no sabia que había tantos tipos de gigantes.

El libro contiene ilustraciones que acompañan a las descripciones y también a los pequeños relatos.

Le doy 3.5

[Kaitlin Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book very interesting.

[Bethany · Rating 1 out of 5]

Apart from some questionable organization choices across the varying books ("Monsters" and "Giants" have noticeable overlap, and some monsters could feasibly be dragons) and a tendancy to favor Greek and British lore, the books are an interesting review of fantastic creatures from stories around the world.

My primary concerns with the series as a whole:

1. All of the stories are refered to as myths--whether or not they actually belong to that genre. A myth is a specific type of story. It may share cultural space with folklore, fairy tales, and legends, but each type of tale has distinct goals and hallmarks. Using the term "myth" to refer to all of those types of stories dilutes the power of the word and also makes it more difficult for younger readers to grasp the more nuanced connotations later in their educations.

2. The writing conflates fantasy and reality in a strange way, with sentences like, "All dragons have scaly skin."

3. The only glaring fact-based problem that leapt out at me was the identification of Beowulf as a myth that comes from Denmark--no mention of it being an Anglo-Saxon epic poem written by an Anglo-Saxon author in Anglo-Saxon England. The oversight makes me wonder what other information is misleading!

[Duane · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is not very well laid out, and the text seems scattered which could mean hard reading for some young readers. It tends to skip around on subjects which gets kind of confusing. There are much better books out there on Giants so I'd pass this one by.

[Alsjem · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to know about Giants this is the book for you. Aimed at children but will educate adults too.