Illustrations are excellant. Manufacture of book is poor quality ...

A beautiful little book, great fun for my kids and me. Has held up over 4 children.

The illustrations of this over-sized children's picture book are almost overwhelming due to the detail of the fine point ink drawings. The tiny strokes that make up the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the plant leaves, and the wall decorations are unbelievable. Great care and thought was given to both the drawings and the painting. The painting of the background of the pages and of the skies contain beautiful combinations of color.

Unfortunately I don't think the writing matches the quality of the illustrations. The story itself could have been made more exciting or more lyrically descriptive.

My five year old really enjoyed this story and he asks me to read it over and over.

Award-winning children's book illustrator, Brian Wildsmith, lends his pen and water colors to the well-known and beloved story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis. As would be expected from Wildsmith, these illustrations of Egyptian palaces, hieroglyphics and royalty in full regalia are a feast to behold. By comparison, Joseph's nomadic sheepherding father, Jacob, and Joseph's treacherous brothers live rather humble lives in the desert.

Unfortunately, the text of this version of the emotionally compelling biblical account is rather dry and matter-of-fact. It would be easy to call this the condensed version. So, enjoy this visually appealing book with your children, but let it be an introduction the richer version found in the Book of Genesis. Be sure to check out Wildsmith's companion volume, "Exodus."

Green is a great teller of tales, and here he definitely succeeds in bringing the ancient Norse Myths to life with vivid prose that is very faithful to his sources. This is one of those reads that is good for children (from about 4th Grade) and adults alike. The author's tone is not patronizing, but treats the reader and the subject matter seriously, and yet lightly and humorously when appropriate.
Green's novel--and it does read like a novel in its own right--is really good at introducing the reader to the world of Norse Myth, starting with the character of the Norse Men and going on to give an overview of the mythology, an introduction to all the gods, their foes, and their worlds, and straight retellings of all the famous tales... all in a narrative context.
I now prefer to read the "originals," but no doubt they would have been far too cryptic for me to read if I didn't have Green to hold my hand at first. I refer to the collection known as the Elder or Poetic Edda (0292764995), as well as the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson (0520012321). For me, those two collections plus the Volsungasaga (0140447385) round out the "genuine" Norse mythology.
But as I said, I would definitely begin with Green. I have read other modern retellings, but if you can find this one, it is the best.

This book had been sitting unread in my library for many years. Recently, I decided to pick it up after getting more interested in the Norse myths after reading the Icelandic Sagas and listening to Wagner's 'Der Ring Des Nibelungen,' which was inspired by Norse mythology. This book supplies a collection of Norse myths, beginning with how the world was created, and ending with 'Ragnarok,' the popular myth about the last battle between the Gods and the Giants. I found myself enthralled throughout the book - that is until I reached the chapter regarding Sigurd. I have had some previous knowledge of this myth, but sought to learn more about it to learn more about Wagner's sources and inspirations when composing his mythological-based 'Ring' operas. Instead, I had found that the author used Wagner's Ring as a source for his chapter on Sigurd rather than the original sagas and myths. This made me question the authenticity of the other stories presented in the book. However, I think they all convey the general idea of what the Nordic people believed in, and think it a good synthesized collection of Norse mythology for those beginning to delve into the subject. It's also an ideal mythic book for younger audiences, as it has no explicit violence and has a simplistic and blunt writing style.

What a pleasurable introduction to the Bible as a storybook for all denominations. Written in plain, but not childish language, I found this book to be a good review for me. It's not preachy or full of contrived messages, just presents the Old and New Testament as a series of short stories. It reads aloud very well, but my first grader can read it and understand it himself. To top it off, the illustrations are wonderful; colorful and intricate, something you could spend forever looking at. I am buying copies to have as gifts as my nieces and nephews start celebrating special occasions.

The book The Tortoise and the Hare is a great book for children to read. Most books for children this age are non colorful and are not that illustrated. This book has bright, colorful pages, and i enjoyed reading it alot. I would recomend this book for preschool and older just because the words are small and some are hard to pronounce. The Tortoise and the Hare tells that you can never judge someone by what they look like or haow slow they are. The tortoise one because he was confident in what he was doing, he was determined to win the race and he did. The hare was upset but he fell asleep. that was his fault. He learned his lesson.

This is a really fun book that my mom read me as a child. It has good pictures and the words are not hard for a child to understand. I would recommend this as the perfect book for parents and kids wo like good bedtime stories.

Although the reader does feel something has been lost in a retelling of the story, the message can still be seen clearly. A very simple tale, which can easily be read by first graders, has the moral of taking pride in yourself and being happy with who you are. When the poor shoe-maker is given a bag of gold, he loses his friends and his happiness. He realizes money and wealth did not make him content. The coverflaps have a lot of praise for the illustrator. He has an interesting style, but his artwork does not grab the attention of the reader and can be overly busy and erratic. It is a shame the artwork brings down this otherwise excellent fable that should be read to all children in our overly competitive capitalist society.

Why 4 stars?:
This is a nice fable, with a wonderful message about greed and capitalism. Unfortunately, its illustrations are attempting an abstract style that they just don't quite pull off.

Trying to combine science fiction, a Bible character, and not-so-subtle environmentalism all in one story was a mistake on the author's part. This book, aimed at kids ages 4-8, fails on all three attempts. Fairy tales are one thing - delusional stories are entirely another!

Amazing, eye-popping art makes this a true must-have. So much to see in each illustration that kids will look through the book for hours! Really enjoyable.

The format of this book is set up with a standard view of a common objects, like a fence or a flower, followed by a close up on the next page, focusing in on what else is there. My toddler and I enjoyed spotting details we found the first and subsequent times we "looked closer" at the pages on which insects were all on their way home. The illustrations are not particularly stellar, and the text is not especially memorable; this book may not be destied to go down as a classic, but it does aproach the subject matter in a unique way, and, overll, is a lot of fun.

I am a great fan of Brian Wildsmith's art, however, this book is not at all up to his usual standards (though my 2 year old son likes it). Furthermore, the nursery rhymes include a number of macabre and violent ones, which I would rather not subject my son to.