Graphic novels about Greek gods that don’t talk down to kids

Choose Zeus. O’Connor thinks a great deal of the exalted depictions of the “King of Gods” are just completely wrong.

“He’s not a dignified aged grey-beard like Sir Laurence Olivier or Liam Neeson,” O’Connor scoffed. “He’d be this 21 year outdated surfer dude from California with ill abdominal muscles.”

He pointed out that in most of the Zeus myths, the god is chasing all those he is attracted to. “He can glance like just about anything he desires. He would not ever be the outdated dignified person. That is not Zeus.”

O’Connor’s favorite goddess is Zeus’ wife Hera, whom he states is “total of silent grace and dignity.”

“In quite a few retellings, she gets cast quite simply just as a poor person, as the jealous shrew of a wife,” he reported, “not getting into account that Zeus is the worst partner imaginable.”

Hera’s relationship is betrayed. Artemis is very clear that she will never ever be touched by guys. Dionysos is born feminine and then will become male. That the textbooks do not turn their gaze from all of this is refreshing, said Brent Elementary university fourth quality trainer Caitlin Arbuckle.

“He isn’t going to shy absent from the gender factor, isn’t going to shy away from the fact the Dionysos enjoys a good deal of wine, like the more grownup factors. But these young ones, by the time they are in fourth grade, a great deal of them, they do have that maturity and they know about the environment,” she claimed.

Which is portion of the issue of his textbooks, O’Connor stated. He would not talk down to young children — and that’s what draws children to them. “Greek mythology is stuffed with stuff that individuals would clutch their pearls at and be like, ‘But the children,'” he said. “I test not to clean up up any of that. The planet is loaded with matters that possibly upset your certain worldview, but they exist and they’re matters that children are likely to face. So why not experience them in story?”

Dionysos is the last Olympian for O’Connor, ending his series. Next up: graphic novels on Norse mythology.

Jennifer Vanasco edited this story for air and website.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see extra, stop by https://www.npr.org.