The Song of the Sirens

Almost three thousand years ago, a poet named Homer told the story of Odysseus, a clever captain trying to sail home from a long war. Children have been hearing it out loud ever since, because the hard parts of that voyage are the hard parts of growing up. Listening to a warning. Keeping a promise when it costs you something. Missing someone who is far away. These are the ideas you're already trying to hand to your children.

The Song of the Sirens carries the second half of the voyage, from a misty shore at the edge of the world to a small raft under the stars, across forty spreads your child can color. A captain tied to his own mast, so he can hear the Sirens and still sail home. A hungry crew, a meadow of fat cattle, and a promise. A wife and a son on Ithaca, waiting for him one night at a time. Odysseus loses his friends on the way, and the pages say so plainly, without showing it.

Each spread pairs a picture to color with a page to read together. Your child colors while you read the story, and at the foot of the page sits a line of Homer to keep, put into plain modern English and numbered by book and line so you can find the original. A 'Talk About It' question ends each spread, for both of you, at bedtime, at the dinner table, or on a quiet afternoon.

This isn't a book about monsters. It's a book about getting home.