We can’t get enough Greek mythology in our house these days. Blaine has been studying Ancient Greece in school. Larrabee and I just finished Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief and we’re in the middle of D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths.

At the same time, Larrabee is working his way through Kate McMullan‘s ten book Myth-O-Mania series. Blaine devoured these books too.

The Myth-O-Mania books retell the Greek myths from Hades’ perspective. According to Hades, the official versions of these stories were all written by his little brother Zeus, who is a myth-0-maniac (Ancient Greek for “big fat liar”). Hades sets the record straight in hilarious fashion.

I love books that take a familiar story and turn it on its head. For that reason, Jon Scieszka’s The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs (told from the wolf’s point of view) is a favorite of mine. The second book in McMullan’s series, Phone Home, Persephone!, offers a similarly fractured take on the myth of Hades’ marriage to Persephone.

I also enjoy seeing Larrabee make the connection between characters (Cerberus, Medusa, the Minotaur) that he’s encountered in the classic D’Aulaires versions and in Riordan’s and McMullan’s reimagined versions of the Greek myths.