By Kevin Crossley-Holland
The darkest and most grown-up-feeling of the myth collections here: a master storyteller retells the Norse legends in strong, atmospheric prose beside bold, shadowy paintings.
Kevin Crossley-Holland is the reteller grown-up scholars reach for, and this is his version pitched for older children: the making and unmaking of the Norse world, Odin hanging on the world-tree for wisdom, Thor's duels and journeys, Loki's brilliance curdling into betrayal, Baldur's death, and the long march to Ragnarok. The tone is a notch darker and more serious than the other collections on this shelf, and Jeffrey Alan Love's stark, near-silhouette paintings give it the feel of firelight and long northern nights.
This is the step up for the older or deeper myth-lover, the one who has outgrown the brighter collections and wants the version that feels serious and true. The prose is richer and asks more of a reader, the tone doesn't flinch, and the artwork treats these as the grand, doom-laden legends they are. On this shelf it's the collection for a confident reader of nine to thirteen, or a wonderful, atmospheric family read-aloud where you carry the weightier sentences.