ARTICLES
Classics for Cool Kids: Popular and Unpopular Versions of Antiquity for Children
​
In her journal article, "Classics for Cool Kids," Sheila Murnaghan explores the popular (and less popular) books that have attempted to create interest and excitement in the classics for children. Beginning with Nathan Hawthorne’s mid-nineteenth century book, A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls, and continuing through the immensely popular Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by contemporary middle-grade author Rick Riordan, Murnaghan takes care to focus on how adults are telling these stories to children—and how these adults walk the line between educating and entertaining.
From Hades to Heaven: Greek Mythological Influences in C. S. Lewis’ “The Silver Chair"
​
C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia has been standard reading repertoire in elementary schools for decades, and this article explores the ways in which Lewis used elements from Greek mythology as he was creating the story of The Silver Chair (the fourth book published in the series). While an article explicitly aimed at educators or theologians, author Amanda Niedbala explores the parallels between Jill and Eustace’s journey to an Odyssean journey, the use of laurel leaves throughout the story (laurel leaves are a well-known Greek image), as well as many of the commonly referenced Narnian creatures that harken to Greek mythology, such as fauns, centaurs, and satyrs. This article would be useful in creating talking points for students to see the ways in which Greek mythology continues to influence children’s literature thousands of years later.
Mythology in children’s animation
​
David L. Emerson’s article, “Mythology in Children’s Animation” provides a resource for educators who are considering using the popularity of animation (including Disney, DreamWorks, and Pixar) in the teaching of mythologies to school-age children. While he explores many different mythologies in addition to Greek (including Irish, Japanese, Chinese, and even Judeo-Christian legends), Emerson points out the differences between the accuracy of films to the original stories and which films pay appropriate and respectful homage to the mythologies they represent.
​
This article, while almost twenty years old, is an interesting study of how children who are studying Greek as a second language process the learning of Greek fairytales. The study involves decoding and analyzing acceptance of gender and social norms in a society different from our own, and how these children (some as young as nine years old) handle this information.
Theater festivals, total works of art, and the revival of Greek tragedy on the modern stage
​
This article has so much that can be pulled from it for a middle-grade setting. It combines history, art, music, theatre, culture, and literature into one cohesive framework. The possibilities are endless, and this provides a lens in which librarians and educators (including fine arts teachers) could provides a cross-curricular project for students to understand how all aspects of education truly do fit together.
Greek Mythology and Ancient Daily Life in Film and TV
​
In a less dry, much more animated article than the others, this online article takes a look at the ways in which Greek myths have been brought into popular culture through movies and television over the last century. From tv fan-favorites like "The Simpsons" and "Star Trek," to cult classic movies such as "O Brother Where Art Thou" and "Clash of the Titans," this article offered from the Getty Museum is an eye-opening exploration of Greek mythology in the 20th century.