Favorite Mythology and Folklore Storybooks
When it comes to mythology and folklore, I feel that I'm well versed in a wider range of mythologies than folklore. That being said, I'm not entirely unfamiliar with nursery-day fairy tales, along with all the other common stories you hear growing up in America. One of the storybooks that piqued my interest was one called The Un-told Stories of Spongebob, as I learned of some new folktales years after growing up. Spongebob is a pleasant memory as I watched the cartoon plenty of times as a kid, but seeing the familiar setting used as a medium to tell different tales was interesting. I never heard of "The Ox who Envied the Pig", but it fit decently into Spongebob's everyday world, although his character was different from normal.
The next story I enjoyed greatly was Raiders of the Lost Bow, as it combined one of my favorite film franchises, Indiana Jones, and an old folktale that I have seen many modern adaptions of, Robin Hood. The introduction hooked me immediately, as the premise was a clear adaptation of a classic Indiana Jones plot in medieval England. It opened up the origin of Robin Hood once again, but put him down a similar path that Indy had once traveled. The accuracy and attention to detail during the story was a nice touch, with the author's note including a map they used to add truth to the things they were saying.
The final story in this showcase is definitely a crowd-pleaser, as it takes a popular modern TV show, Man vs. Wild, and combines it with the ancient Greek myth of Odysseus, a legendary hero, known as Odysseus vs. Wild. The writing in the story is spot on with Bear Grylls' voice instantly replacing the mannerisms of Odysseus, and adding an exciting air to the already intense myths of ancient Greece. Mixing the element of teaching survival facts right before Odysseus' encounters makes it easy to imagine a live show where one man is surviving against the various myths that spawned in those times. While lacking in design minus a few pictures for each story, the storybook still captivated my attention from start to finish.
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