Giveaway #643 : Win Gods and Monsters book (including Thunderbolt Talisman) - closed - winner Ashleigh Allan

Gods and Monsters is the latest offering from author Stella Caldwell, who has already written several other children's books, including Dragonworld, Egyptworld, Beastworld and Explore 360 : The Tomb of Tutankhamun. She has a real knack for bringing ancient history and mythology to life in an exciting and entertaining way that it easy for children to grasp.

Before we'd even started looking through the book, Pierre was most impressed to discover that it comes with a Thunderbolt Talisman attached to the front cover. This was a nice touch to help continue the learning experience outside of the book, and lead into follow on activities such as imaginative play. Pierre, for example, asked if he would have special powers like Percy Jackson when wearing it !

The book is split into three categories : The Greeks and Romans, the Vikings and the Ancient Egyptians. I was pleased to see that it delves deeper than the usual Greek and Roman mythology - Viking mythology, in particular, is often completely overlooked.

The pages are perfectly balanced with lots of pictures and short texts, which make it appealing to even young children and reluctant readers. It's a clever mix of presenting real-life artefacts from the ancient world, as in a museum, and imaginative representations of mythical and mythological figures.

The lavish CGI artwork helps recreate dramatic scenes from mythology and really brings to life the terrifying monsters and gods, including Frost Giants, Poseidon, the Midgard Serpent and Ammit, Devourer of the Dead. Even as a grown-up, I was highly impressed with the realism of the pictures and drawn in by the fascinating attention to detail.

The kids have only been back to school for a week and it's already been used for research for two homework projects - Sophie had to find out about monsters, including the Sphinx, and Juliette had to find pictures of some of the ancient Greek and Roman sites for a latin project. They both quickly found the information they needed, then ended up getting drawn in and reading the whole book !

The texts provide historical context to the mythology, while the illustrations really help young readers to imagine the scenes and creatures. Generations of children have been fascinated by Roman and Greek mythology, but recent successful book and film series, such as Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Kane Chronicles and the Magnus Chase stories, have made them even more popular. It's great to find a book that is as appealing as it is educational.

Paperback

72 pages

225 x 225mm

Published Sep 2017

ISBN 9781783122998

RRP : £8.99

for more information : https://www.carltonbooks.co.uk/gods-and-monsters-pb.html

Carlton Kids have kindly offered to send a copy of the book to one lucky Madhouse Family Reviews reader. Fill in your entries in the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

UK only. Closing date : 26/9/17

T & C's : Entries close at midnight on the closing date. Winners will be selected with a random number generator and announced on facebook and in the giveaway post subject line. Please note, you will be contacted by email and/or twitter and if I haven't heard from you after 28 days, I'll have to pick another winner. Prizes will be sent out by the companies or their PR directly to winners. Madhouse Family Reviews cannot be held responsible for any prizes that go astray !

You may also like to enter my other giveaways :

Giveaway #642 : Win Scottie Dog leggings and top from Blade & Rose - closing date 16/9