Louisa Campbell
Gibbs-Smith Publishing
Fiction, YA Picture Book
***
Gargoyles' Christmas
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell
Barnes & Noble
Nonfiction, Mythology
****
DESCRIPTION: No matter how strange and diverse the world's cultures may seem, they all have, at their heart, a similar mythic core. This book outlines the characteristics of the global mythic hero, and how he/she reflects the journeys we make in our own lives.
REVIEW: This is considered a must-read classic work on mythology, and I can certainly see that. Campbell does a remarkable job collecting and analyzing world myths from various cultures, and he comes up with many interesting facts and theories. However, as a layperson, I thought he wandered a bit too deep into academic gibberish, and there were times when I lost track of the thrust of his sentences with all the flowery (and, to my mind, unnecessary) additives. I also thought that his myth fragments, used to illustrate points, sometimes got in the way more than they helped, and there were a few illustrations whose significance to the text was never explained. On the whole, this book provided excellent food for thought, and I can see why it's so often recommended to writers.
You might also enjoy:
Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends (Margot Edmonds & Ella E. Clark, Nonfiction - A collection of traditional Native American stories)
The Book of Fabulous Beasts (Joseph Nigg, Nonfiction - The classical origins and evolution of many fantastic animals)
The King of Cats and Other Feline Fairy Tales (John Richard Stephens, Nonfiction - A collection of cat tales from around the world)
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Gargoyles' Christmas
Louisa Campbell
Gibbs-Smith Publishing
Fiction, YA Picture Book
***
Gargoyles' Christmas
DESCRIPTION: The gargoyles Craig, Cliff, and Christabel hate Christmas. They hate the decorations, the happiness, and the holiday cheer. One night, they get so sick of it that they go on a rampage. When they get themselves hopelessly trapped, only Santa Claus can free them before dawn turns them back into stone.
REVIEW: To be perfectly honest, I only bought this book because of my interest in gargoyles. I got it for a buck on clearance, and I know I wouldn't have bothered paying full price for it. It's a bit dull, even for a young kid's book, and the illustrations are dippy. The story's fairly whimsical for all that, and the gargoyles learn a simple lesson about the holiday spirit. Not a bad book, but Eve Bunting's Night of the Gargoyles is a much better choice if you want a gargoyle picture book.
You might also enjoy:
Night of the Gargoyles (Eve Bunting, YA Picture Book - By night, the gargoyles of the city come to life)
The Knight and the Dragon (Tomie DePaola, YA Fiction - A knight who has never fought dragons meets a dragon who hasn't faced a knight)
A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens, Fiction - A cold-hearted miser has a fateful encounter with Christmas spirits)
The Stoneheart trilogy (Charlie Fletcher, YA Fiction - A boy becomes entangled in the invisible battle between London's gargoyles and statuary)
The Paper Bag Princess (Robert Munsch, YA Fiction - A princess must save her boyfriend from a dragon)
The Gargoyle on the Roof (Jack Prelutsky, YA Poetry - Poems about gargoyles and other creatures)
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