World Myths and Legends

December 15, 2010
Grades 4-6 Through hands-on projects and exciting stories, this title in the Build It Yourself series aims to ignite young peoples curiosity in multicultural mythology and legends. Each chapter, which focuses on the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, or the Americas, provides a succinct introduction to major themes and characters in a cultures mythology, a glossary, short retellings, and more historical and cultural background, followed by easily assembled projects, as in the section on Sub-Saharan Africa, which presents instructions for making Ashanti Adinkra cloth and a Bata thunder drum. The gray-toned format, featuring spot illustrations, is lackluster, and a few of the projects, particularly the Hopi kachina doll, reference sacred objects that shouldnt be designated as crafts. With proper context and discussion, though, this title offers solid, interactive opportunities to explore world mythology.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)