TITLE: Pandora's Box
AUTHOR: Jessica Gunderson
PUBLISHER: Capstone Press
ISBN: 9781669051091
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Pandora’s Box is the newest book in the Mythology Graphics Series released by Capstone Press. This series is dedicated to bringing classical stories of Greek Myth to a younger audience, grades 3-4, in an accessible way. Jessica Gunderson, author of more than 50 books for young readers and winner of the Moonbeam Award for Best Graphic Novel, is the force behind this latest book.
Pandora is the girl who released all the negative things in the world (war, famine, and pestilence) but there was one blessing left at the bottom of the box: that of hope. Everyone knows the story, right? Yet few are familiar with the wider backdrop of this drama, such as the battle for supremacy between the Titans and the Olympians, as well as Prometheus stealing the fire for humans, or even Epimetheus’ wooing of Pandora herself. Gunderson brings the whole story to her readers in graphic novel form.
Gunderson’s writing would be familiar to most young readers. She peppers hashtags and social media jargon into the panels periodically – anachronisms funny enough to get a reader to laugh out loud. Zeus might be the king of the gods of Olympus, but this story casts him as a petty and vindictive deity – a characterization in line with how he’s been depicted in a fair number of the mythological cycles. Pandora is a curious and relatable, if tragic, hero, while Prometheus and Epimetheus are both lovable and amusing comic relief.
Jessi Zabarsky and Le Nhat Vu’s illustrations give the book a fun and punchy feel. It reads a bit like a newspaper comic strip – not difficult to follow, but also fun to peruse more than once. This stripped down, modern aesthetic renders the strip modern enough to present day readers without divesting it of the core story elements that have endured over the years.
This is a fun retelling that I’m sure most kids will love. Age-appropriate, but with art that would be fun for older readers, it would be at home in any school library. With series like Percy Jackson continuing to thrive on the shelves, I’m hopeful that this book will sit right next to them and help to lend context to more mythological retellings for a long time to come.
AUTHOR: Jessica Gunderson
PUBLISHER: Capstone Press
ISBN: 9781669051091
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Pandora’s Box is the newest book in the Mythology Graphics Series released by Capstone Press. This series is dedicated to bringing classical stories of Greek Myth to a younger audience, grades 3-4, in an accessible way. Jessica Gunderson, author of more than 50 books for young readers and winner of the Moonbeam Award for Best Graphic Novel, is the force behind this latest book.
Pandora is the girl who released all the negative things in the world (war, famine, and pestilence) but there was one blessing left at the bottom of the box: that of hope. Everyone knows the story, right? Yet few are familiar with the wider backdrop of this drama, such as the battle for supremacy between the Titans and the Olympians, as well as Prometheus stealing the fire for humans, or even Epimetheus’ wooing of Pandora herself. Gunderson brings the whole story to her readers in graphic novel form.
Gunderson’s writing would be familiar to most young readers. She peppers hashtags and social media jargon into the panels periodically – anachronisms funny enough to get a reader to laugh out loud. Zeus might be the king of the gods of Olympus, but this story casts him as a petty and vindictive deity – a characterization in line with how he’s been depicted in a fair number of the mythological cycles. Pandora is a curious and relatable, if tragic, hero, while Prometheus and Epimetheus are both lovable and amusing comic relief.
Jessi Zabarsky and Le Nhat Vu’s illustrations give the book a fun and punchy feel. It reads a bit like a newspaper comic strip – not difficult to follow, but also fun to peruse more than once. This stripped down, modern aesthetic renders the strip modern enough to present day readers without divesting it of the core story elements that have endured over the years.
This is a fun retelling that I’m sure most kids will love. Age-appropriate, but with art that would be fun for older readers, it would be at home in any school library. With series like Percy Jackson continuing to thrive on the shelves, I’m hopeful that this book will sit right next to them and help to lend context to more mythological retellings for a long time to come.