Preschool books: Mini Myths Be Patient Pandora and Play Nice Hercules

At the risk of an overused pun, Greek mythology is well, Greek to me.  I know somewhere there’s a pillar of salt, a hydra, Hercules and Aquaman is in there somewhere, I think.  Mini Myths is a new board book series of the classic Greek myths re-imagined as modern stories for toddlers.  The words on these preschool books are big, the concepts are simple and the art will draw in young readers aged 1-4.

Our almost 5 year old asked for Be Patient Pandora! when he got in the car today after school.  They had to tell the class about a book that they like and he wanted to do this, but had already taken another book to school. There is a great sense of irony in the fact that a very impatient 5 year old wanted to take a book that teaches a lesson about patience.

In Be Patient Pandora our title character sees a box, but her mom tells her not to open it.  Of course Pandora doesn’t open it, but she jumps on it, sits on it and stands on it until its contents come flying out.  Pandora is immediately apologetic and quite relieved when her mom forgives her and shares one of the remaining cupcakes that flew out of the box.

If you know your Greek mythology then you know that this toddler tale closely mirrors what happened when Zeus sent the box down to Earth.  The only reason I know about Zeus doing that is because the last page of Be Patient Pandora is a very simple overview of Pandora’s Box.

Play Nice Hercules has the same overview on the back page.  It goes over his relationship with Hera, subsequent twelve labors and how he eventually reconciled with his family.  In the toddler version Hercules plays too rough with his sister and has a change of heart, playing with her and helping build a block castle.

Our almost 3 year old likes the books because they’re short, simple and have big pictures.   I think that the almost 5 year old likes them because he can read most of the words in the books.

Both Be Patient Pandora! and Play Nice Hercules are cute, simple fun books that toddlers will like.  Their price point is $6.95, so it’s affordable and made with very sturdy hard boards for small hands.  It remains to be seen if these will be the gateway books that lead our children to love Percy Jackson, but it’s a good start to get their creativity going.