Mythology for the Holidays (Or Anytime)

Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes Pop-Up by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart (who we all know I love) was released earlier this year and I never posted about it here.  I finally bought a copy last month and now I have to share. 

Here's the book description:

For all of recorded history, humans have sought to understand Earth’s mysteries in the realm of the divine — and aspired to conduct themselves as heroes. Only gods, of course, could push the sun across the sky,forge entire continents, and impel mountains to touch the clouds. In this stunning volume, the incomparable team of Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda take us to Ra-Atum’s land in Ancient Egypt; above the Grecian clouds to Zeus’s Mount Olympus; up to Norse god Odin’s frozen north; to the Far East, where the Jade Emperor sits in the heavens; into the wilds of Oceania, where Pele’s volcanic rage simmers below the earth; and to many more lands and times, all rich with sacred myths and legends.

Essentially this book offers two page spreads of various mythologies from around the world ranging from the Egyptian and Greek to the Norse, Chinese and Native American. The pop-ups are intricate and interesting as to be expected from Sabuda and Reinhart. A great book for anyone who loves mythology, especially children learning about it for the first time.  My niece was on her way to becoming a Greek mythology scholar earlier this year thanks to Percy Jackson and her own insatiable reading habits. A trip to Nashville's Parthenon was a grand success.

Of course, the all time best-selling and beloved mythology collection for young readers for decades has been D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d'Aulaire and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire.  If you are acquiring that one, you might as well add in their D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, too.  I have to say that since I am a full quarter Norwegian and quite a bit Scandinavian in general. I wish someone had given either one of these books to me as a child. But if someone had, this might be a mythology blog instead of more fairy tale oriented.  All for the lack of a gift book to a precocious child reader, here we are today.  :)