Five different stories are included about Athena (how she killed Pallas, fought the Gigantes, aided Perseus, and cursed Arachne). Athena is the goddess of wisdom, her classic stories are portrayed in this graphic novel. Appropriate for upper elementary students and older.

I've been dying to read a few of the books in this series, so I was so excited to find a spare copy about one of my favorite Greek goddesses on book collection day. (My other favorite is Artemis. I'm kind of predictable.)

These tellings of the Greek myths strike a healthy balance between faithfulness to the original and avoiding getting too graphic. If this were written for adults, these stories could have been extremely bloody and gory--but instead O'Connor keeps just enough violence for kids to understand and appreciate the impact of what's happening without going off the deep end.

I appreciate how "adult" the art looks--it could have been so easy to go for rounder, softer images, which strikes me as the visual equivalent of talking down to kids. Although created for a younger audience, the art, layout, and only slightly airbrushed stories seem, to me, to respect kids' ability to understand more than adults give them credit for. Plenty of adult graphic novel lovers would enjoy the artwork here.

The book includes a whole bunch of cool extras at the back: full-page profiles of the major characters with key information about them; an author's note with a bit of comparative history; handy "G(r)eek Notes" with extra details about variants on the myths, changes made for the story, clarifications, and references to other myths; and a brief bibliography, including books that this book's audience would be able to appreciate.

I have only two complaints: First, Athena felt too short (I read the whole thing while Areg was in the shower yesterday morning), but this is probably because of the younger audience and the number of available myths to choose from. Second, the story of how Athena became the patron goddess of Athens isn't here. What the heck! That's kind of an important story, and I would rather have had that than the Perseus myth. Perseus just felt like it was straying too far from Athena...and it might have made its own standalone book, or been part of a book about heroes.

I hope First Second is planning an omnibus once all of the twelve major gods and goddesses have been covered, because I'll definitely add it to my physical book shelf!

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this review are my own and do not reflect those of my employer. ( )

This graphic novel from George O'Connor's Olympians series tells the origin story of Athena the Goddess of Wisdom and several stories important to her development and the building of her aegis.

I can't tell you how much I love this series. It tells lots of the great myth's in a way that makes them very accessible. The illustration style is extremely appropriate and the author doesn't necessarily stick with the most common version of the story. The notes he includes are great and even have references of stories to come, a little bit of humor and give the versions of the stories that the author chose not to include.
He also includes explanations of why he chose to go with the version's of the stories he went with.

I've always found Athena interesting and I liked watching a God develop and grow. It puts a whole new spin on the Greek Gods and how human they could be. Some of the myths in her story I had never heard before and some are stories told over and over again. I liked that they told Perseus' story even though it didn't directly include Athena much. The author's inclusion of it made you feel all the more how important the aegis is. ( )

This graphic novel from George O'Connor's Olympians series tells the origin story of Athena the Goddess of Wisdom and several stories important to her development and the building of her aegis.

I can't tell you how much I love this series. It tells lots of the great myth's in a way that makes them very accessible. The illustration style is extremely appropriate and the author doesn't necessarily stick with the most common version of the story. The notes he includes are great and even have references of stories to come, a little bit of humor and give the versions of the stories that the author chose not to include.
He also includes explanations of why he chose to go with the version's of the stories he went with.

I've always found Athena interesting and I liked watching a God develop and grow. It puts a whole new spin on the Greek Gods and how human they could be. Some of the myths in her story I had never heard before and some are stories told over and over again. I liked that they told Perseus' story even though it didn't directly include Athena much. The author's inclusion of it made you feel all the more how important the aegis is. ( )

This graphic novel from George O'Connor's Olympians series tells the origin story of Athena the Goddess of Wisdom and several stories important to her development and the building of her aegis.

I can't tell you how much I love this series. It tells lots of the great myth's in a way that makes them very accessible. The illustration style is extremely appropriate and the author doesn't necessarily stick with the most common version of the story. The notes he includes are great and even have references of stories to come, a little bit of humor and give the versions of the stories that the author chose not to include.
He also includes explanations of why he chose to go with the version's of the stories he went with.

I've always found Athena interesting and I liked watching a God develop and grow. It puts a whole new spin on the Greek Gods and how human they could be. Some of the myths in her story I had never heard before and some are stories told over and over again. I liked that they told Perseus' story even though it didn't directly include Athena much. The author's inclusion of it made you feel all the more how important the aegis is. ( )