This was one of my favorite books as a child and I have been looking for another copy of it. It has beautiful illustrations-- they show visually that same dark magical quality as some Grimm's fairy tales do literally. I highly recommend this book.

My sister and I enjoyed this book as children and have been looking for it for a couple of months since our parents recently moved and it has been lost. The illustrations are incredible - really works of art in and of themselves! The story is classic and is a little above children of a young age (at times it's chilling) but together with the illustrations, it makes for one memorable book.

I've always been wary of people "reimaging" -- to use Hollywood's latest buzzword -- the classics but it's next to impossible to condemn Christopher Logue's work in reinterpreting Homer's Illiad. In All Day Permanent Red, Logue rewrites the first battles in the Illiad and the result is a fantastic updating of books 5 and 6. Mixing ancient and modern metaphors in his poetry, Logue brings home the juxtaposition in war both as horror and joy. I'm a traditionalist, I don't much care for people messing about with the books I love, but I have nothing but applause for Logue.

i enjoyed this immensely. it was an engaging narrative of the 3rd and 4th books.

In the story of Puss In Boots, a miller dies and leaves one of his sons nothing but the cat. This cat turns out to be quite clever and earns the favor of the King for his master. The cat also obtains land and a castle for his master and gives him the title of the Marquis of Carabas. The King becomes so impressed by the Marquis that he offers his daughter's hand in marriage, and the simple miller's son becomes a prince. The use of clever illustration makes this book an effective piece of folk lore. "Narrative Expectations: The Folklore Connection" discusses the basic pattern of a folktale. The article states that every folktale begins with the main character of the story being no different from or more special than any other character. Then, out of nowhere, the character is boosted into a "supernatural world" and all of a sudden he is moved up to higher society and viewed as a hero (67). This resembles the plot pattern of Puss In Boots, with the Marquis being the average character who becomes a hero. This jump to a higher level of society out of luck is strangely enough realistic in the twenty-first century. With things like inheritance, lotteries, and the stock market, a person of today could easily go from the poor miller's son to a "prince." However, this is not a common occurrence. The article also states that folklore "functions in part as an informal system for learning the daily logic and worldview of the people around us (71)." The author chooses not to use human characters to represent Master Slyboots and the rich ogre. He could have done this easily with illustration by making Master Slyboots a servant boy and the ogre a Marquis. Instead, he uses an informal style, placing animal characters in the book. This represents a higher level: Using animals in contrast to humans in order to show the differences in people as a whole.

This new translation of the "fairy" story first presented by Charles Perrault (1628-1703) in his Tales of Mother Goose in 1697 was illustrated by Fred Marcellino and translated by Malcolm Arthur. It was a 1991 Caldecott Honor book (that is, a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children. The youngest son of a recently deceased miller receives a cat as his inheritance. He feels that he will soon die of starvation (after he has eaten the cat) since he has no other possessions. But, the cat convinces him to get him boots. The cat proceeds to find a fortune and a position for his young master.

I regularly visit school classrooms and read aloud to children from Kindergarten through eighth grade. Finding books that appeal to more than one grade level is a challenge.

I have found that the pictures in this version of 'Puss' appeal immensely to kindergartners through third graders. (Fourth and Fifth grade children also like it, but are often embarassed to say so in a classroom setting!). Children who often have a hard time sitting still for a story have sat transfixed as I read this book, holding the pictures in front of them all the time and giving them lots of opportunities to check out the wonderful use of light and color. The illustrator uses a lot of wonderful yellow that is very appealing to young children and seems to draw them into the book. I love reading this book out loud both to see children's reaction and also because I love the detail and color in the pictures.

Reading this book aloud has also sparked some beautiful art work from young children.

Some of the language in War Music is exceptional--Her breasts so lovely that they envy one another-- And he quit being-- His soul crawled off his tongue and vanished into sunlight-- And from its silver, sea-dark wine had crossed your lips (such a nice turn on Homer's wine-dark sea)-- Dawn stepped bare-footed from her lover's bed (Homer's rosy-fingered Dawn has become rosy-toed).

However it must be said further that this work seemed exhausting and extremely difficult to follow, except in the broadest outlines. Who is doing what to whom, and when and with whom, were questions constantly in mind while reading. Obviously this work does not purport to be a translation of Homer in the usual sense, but it is indeed a powerful and arresting poem in its own right, an inspired and original adaptation, which is of course what Logue intends. The introduction of modern words and non-Homeric references (Bikini, Iwo Jima, Napoleon, binoculars, etc.) is bothersome not because they are there per se, but because they seem so unnecessary to the context and tone of the poem. The seem like jolting anachronisms. Other images and words found within the Homeric world would have done just as well. And where on earth does he get some of the proper names--Bombax, Famagusta, Opknocktophon, etc.? If these are intended to provide a background of humorously named lesser characters, as in Shakespeare, perhaps reading the classics leaves one unprepared for them in this context and precludes appreciating them as such.

Logue's insight into the major themes comes across well. We see the wrath of Achilles wreaking its consequences. We know that when Patroclus goes out to die, Achilles will follow him. And we see foreshadowed that when Hector falls at the hands of Achilles and the doom of Troy is sealed, so too is Achilles own fate assured. Through all these themes the immortals are weaving their way, full of apparent fallibilities and indecisivenness themselves, playing their favorites, and never hesitating to interfere in the affairs of men, in which they take a great interest.

Logue's inspired poem is good and perhaps will lead some to Homer himself, especially if this version is heard aloud (as the mention of the BBC suggests), where the power and rhythm of the language can be demonstrated and felt to its fullness.

This is a flat-out triumph. Logue fills his take on Homer with dazzling imagery and stunning word-music. The Iliad falls right into our laps because Logue has given it a mighty shove. Only Professor Fagles' recent translation of the poem betters it and that is because Dr. Fagles has actually rendered the WHOLE poem in crisp, biting English that for the first time actually walks Homer up to our faces. In Fagles we can smell the breath of the blind poet, Logue brings us to the sweaty armpits.

As a styling, however, "War Music" has no peer and if Dr. Fagles has a slight edge it is because he has, after all, wrestled with the Greek text and got us into Homer's world all the way. Logue brings into the world but chooses to give us a whirlwind tour while Fagles allows us to slum awhile.

Still as much as I adore Dr. Fagles now celebrated translation, I am haunted. Logue's great re-imagining has left me shaken. The worship scenes are boffo and the Pax chapter that ends this fine "War Music" contains some of the sharpest, most moving, most eloquent, most rugged, and most manly, epic English verse since Marlowe's majestic "Tamburlaine" made kings into footstools.

And finally, there is this: As a work of English poetry, leaving Homer on the rocks for just a moment, "War Music" stands as one of the great collections of modern verse in the 20th Century.

"War Music" turns staid old men like me into groupies.

Bravo!

Why must old works of literature sound like they're covered with dust? People rail against translations of the Bible, like the Message version, and translations of classics, like this book, as if they were desecrating our grandfathers. This is a re-vision of a work of genius that truly brings Homer into the modern age. As George Steiner says in Homer in English (which shows all the brilliance, as well as the boringness, of Homer translators of the past), this is one of the few translations of Homer that is a work of art in its own right. Get it!