Why this has gone out of print I do not know. This version of the story can be read to a child over the course of about 7-10 nights. Better than Zeman's version, this story fleshes out details that make the actions of the characters much more understandable.

For example, when Gilgamesh rejects the goddess Ishtar, who has decided Gilgamesh should be her next husband, in Zeman's version you really have no sense why he rejects her. Marrying a goddess seems like a good thing, but for some unexplained reason Gilgamesh doesn't go for it. In Bryson's version however, she spells out Gilgamesh's reasons; Ishtar, once she has the attention of the one she desires, grows tired of the hapless soul and then she destroys them. Suddenly Gilgamesh's action makes sense.

In another example, Zeman leaves out any reference to Ninsun, Gilgamesh's mother, while in Bryson she is an important character whom Gilgamesh seeks out for advice.

This story is a wonderful tale. Bryson's retelling gives us insight into characters who lived 5000 years ago. She makes it possible to understand their to way of life. Where else can you read about heroes who bear bronze swords and seek out the man who survived the flood?

This is the best re-telling of the earliest epic of mankind, that I have seen for children. At just over 100 pages, it gives a much fuller sense of the story and its intricacies than Ludmilla Zeman's version. (Although her illustrations are much better). As a supplemental/part-time home schooling mother (I supplement what my children learn in school), I think this book is the best place to start any child's study of history and literature. (Mine started with this book at age 6.)

I got this book out of the children's section of our localpublic library and now am trying to get my own copy.

There is justsomething about this book, the way that it tells the story ofGilgamesh and his best friend, Eikkidu (sp?); their battles with the magical bull; the original story of the Flood; how the first walled city was built; the troubles with Ishtar; and other tales of the dawn of history, that touches my heart. The author is showing us mankind's childhood, and she tells the story with simplicity. Her illustrations remind us of the stone carvings and other artifacts of Mesopotamia, yet somehow they convey movement and expression beautifully.

The story of Eikkidu is my favorite. God creates him, and leaves him asleep in the forest. When Eikkidu wakes up, he does not know he is a strong man, and runs away from the first rabbits and small animals that he sees. Gilgamesh eventually finds him and befriends him, and the two become inseparable. Eikkidu becomes more or less civilized, but never, if I remember correctly, can bring himself to eat meat. When Eikkidu dies, Gilgamesh goes to the underworld to bring him back. A lovely, lovely story from the time and place of Zarathrustra, the sage who taught us to call God "Friend."

For the sake of honesty, though, I must admit that my children didn't enjoy it as much as I did. Though they did read it, they might have enjoyed a more violent, colorful version. Still, the story and the illustrations of this version are historically accurate and, I would think, better art, and children have to be exposed to those things for awhile before they learn to appreciate them.

When 8 year-old Max discovers a box of 12 wooden soldiers
in Napoleonic uniforms, hidden in the attic of their new home,
he is naturally delighted. But is there a link between this old house and the Bronte museum nearby? His find becomes a rare
treasure when he realizes that The Twelves are alive, having
been endowed by their four genii (the literary Bronte children)
with incredible abilities: to think, speak, behave and regenerate their lives at will! Each man has his own name, appearance and identity, reflecting the various aspects of the children's own personalities. But how long can Max keep his precious secret, with two suspicious older siblings nosing about?

This charming tale of miniatures answers the questions posed by Margery Williams: what is real and how do toys come alive? Max must learn to trust first his sister, then even an adult, as he struggles to prevent the unthinkable: crass commercial sale and heartless exportation to America. What devastating deportation to the Young Men, as a result of media curiosity and a mercenary older brother. Is there no way they can be saved for literary England and preserved in safety where they truly belong? Young Max behaves in a surprisingly adult manner, as he insists on permitting the Twelves to chart their own destiny. Keeping their military dignity intact, they attempt and accomplish marvels of logistics with minimal aid. This is a cute, imaginative tale (which might inspire some interest in the original Four Genii), for children of all ages.

Pauline Clarke took the known history of the Bronte children, and created a powerful fantasy around this. Lynne Reid Banks, years later, did the same with a different non-historical toy in "The Indian in the Cupboard", but Clarke did it first. Of course Clarke's story about toys that are brought to life by being played with, in itself, is not original. Nor is the idea of the interaction between human and small people (for "small people" read "toys") original - not since Gulliver went to Lilliput, or, a year or two before Clarke, since Mary Norton invented a race of small "Borrowers" - another outstanding classic of children's literature.

Branwell Bronte, the ne'er-do-well son, would-be painter, and drug addict, had a set of toy soldiers, in the otherwise grim rooms of Haworth vicarage. These were a stimulus for all the children to play and tell stories, often stories about the soldiers, and their exploits in imaginary countries. The toy soldiers were given names, and characters. They were truly loved by Branwell and his sisters. Small wonder then, if the toys were somehow to be lost, and then more than a century later to be discovered by a small boy, who in turn loves them - and they come back to life, full of Bronte spirit and imagination.

The story of their "Return" turns into a quest, both for them to be restored to their rightful home, and for them to be allowed to be themselves, safe from prying humans, from museum dryness, and from interference, however well-meaning. Their "Return" is a quest of growing up, becoming independent, becoming people. Toys imbued with childish characteristics by the children who loved them, created them, and played with them, can only grwo up so much. Max, the twentieth century boy who re-discovers them can grow up far more.

This is a neglected classic - in its time a Carnegie Medal winner - the British equivalent for a children's book of an Academy Award.

It should also be noted that Clarke wrote many other outstanding books for children - sadly, also neglected - fantasies, historical novels, and plain (?) everyday (?) comedies of family life. She ought to be far better known. You could spend a year reading and not find anything as good as "The Return of the Twelve", also known as "The Return of the genii" in Britain.

Very highly recommended.