Easy Greek Mythology Chapter Books for Girls
My 5th grade daughter took great exception to this book series because the mythology is slightly inaccurate. She fumes that Athena didn’t live with humans, nor was she even a preteen. The “brainstorms” in which the gods’ ideas rained down on earth also bugged her. In fact, this book so annoyed her that she told me not to blog on it or to let her younger sister read it. “She’ll hate it,” she warned.
Goddess Girls, Athena the Brain by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams [easy chapter book series, ages 6-10]
So, with trepidation, I finally got around to reading the book. I like Greek mythology as much as my eldest and I am always searching for more great easy chapter book series. And you know what? This isn’t half bad. True, it isn’t a series that I’d rave about and hunt down every last book, but it does do a nice job of making Greek mythology accessible and interesting to girls in grades 1-3 ish. True, the setting is a boarding school full of mean-girl cliques and that is not my favorite scene but … it does place Medusa and other minor Greek goddesses like Pheme, Goddess of Gossip, correctly as bad girls.
My daughter and I both like Athena, Artemis, and Demeter. Demeter isn’t in the book but her daughter Persephone is. She, Aphrodite, and Artemis all befriend young Athena which helps to balance out the mean girl bullying playing out in the plot.
The most interesting part of the book for me was the young gods and goddesses in Hero-ology class. Each draws a mortal to manipulate in what turns out to be The Iliad. Athena draws Odysseus and competes with her fellow classmates to design a quest for her hero as well as help him out of trouble. It’s a fun and accurate way to introduce The Iliad.
I didn’t realize the relationship in Greek Mythology between Medusa and her snake hair and Athena but apparently (and I had to look it up), Medusa was a mortal who punished by Athena for hooking up with Poseidon in her temple:
“In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet Ovid (Metamorphoses 4.770), Medusa was originally a ravishing beautiful maiden, “the jealous aspiration of many suitors,” priestess in Athena’s temple, but when she and the “Lord of the Sea” Poseidon lay together inAthena‘s temple, the enraged Athena transformed Medusa’s beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone (in some accounts Poseidon raped/ravished her). In Ovid’s telling, Perseus describes Medusa’s punishment by Athena as just and well-deserved.” from Wikipedia
If your daughter is ready to move on from the Rainbow Fairy series (or if you are doing shared reading and this repetitive series is making you crazy), this would be an upgrade. Greek mythology purists like my eldest should read Edith Hamilton’s books instead but this is a fun series for grades 1-4.
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i love this series sure it might not be true,but it wasent made to be true.it was made to make greek and oman myths fun .So even if its not true doesnt mean it not fun and so 8-12 kids arent supposed belive its true because its listed in the FICTION section of the libary or werever u buy it.Also the percy jackson series is not that bad or the hereos os olympus. dont critize a book because of ur childeren
Hi Don’t Criticize,
One of my kids didn’t love the series because she was into mythology and wanted the stories to be more accurate, but I agree with you. There are not bad books out there and this one is great for girls who don’t take Greek Mythology so literally and want mean girl characters as part of the plot. It’s a nice way for girls to get drawn into mythology. Thanks for your comment!
p.s. Two of my kids love the Percy Jackson series! They have read every single word that Rick Riordan ever wrote.
So far I love the books and I just started and I’m only on book 1 Chapter 2 but I like read aloud’s to read with but I can’t find any…do you have any suggestions?
Hi Catherine,
Do you need read aloud Mythology books for kids? I love D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths. If your child is in 4th or 5th grade and wants more details, my daughter and I also love Edith Hamilton’s Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. For action adventure and mythology, two of kids adored the Percy Jackson series (there are two) by Rick Riordan. Start with the first one. Book 1 is The Lightening Thief.