From

This is an entry in the Greenhaven Press Encyclopedia Of series, which is intended to help students with research. The arrangement of the book is curious. Rather than being dictionary style, the topics are broken up into chapters ("Rulers, Heroes, and Other Human Characters," "Major and Minor Gods"), and the topics within each chapter are listed alphabetically. The table of contents lists all the entries in each chapter. An index provides additional access points. Many entries have see references, and if the entries to which the reader is being referred occur in another chapter, chapter numbers are provided.

The book is sturdy and well designed. It will lay flat for copying, and most of the illustrations (photographs, line drawings, and woodcuts) should copy well. The writing should be accessible to advanced-placement middle-school students and above.

Articles range from a few lines to a few double-column pages. One chapter covers 12 major myth cycles, which should be helpful to students with mythology assignments. Also useful is a chart showing relationships between characters in classical mythology. The bibliography has works that can be found in most medium-sized to large public libraries.

This volume would be suited to school libraries and to public libraries serving middle- and high-school students. Libraries owning titles like Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology (ABC-CLIO, 1998) may want to pass on the Greenhaven title unless such material is heavily used. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved