Your child can already tell you why Thor’s hammer has a stubby handle and which of Loki’s children is the world-serpent. Every book here feeds the same obsession, from a cozy little Neil Gaiman fable to a fat, demanding fantasy epic. Pick the one that fits your child's age and appetite, hand it over, and reach for another whenever they're ready for more.
This is a shelf of very different doors into the same obsession, and any single one satisfies this path on its own. There's a warm, funny Neil Gaiman fable about a boy who helps three gods win back Asgard, a doodle-packed diary told by a grounded, sarcastic Loki, three beautiful collections of the real myths pitched from friendliest to most serious, and then two fat novels, Rick Riordan's wisecracking Norse adventure and Joanne Harris's dense, dark fantasy. Read Gaiman aloud to the little ones, hand the Loki book to a reluctant reader, give the treasuries to the collector who wants the true stories, and save the two novels for when a strong reader wants something long. Pick by your child's age and appetite.