Overview
Twenty-five hundred years ago Greek soldiers faced the Persian army on the plain of Marathon. Pheidippides ran to neighboring Sparta, 140 miles away, to ask for the Spartans' aid. Afterwards he sped back to the battle, where he helped defeat the enemy.
Synopsis
Twenty-five hundred years ago Greek soldiers faced the Persian army on the plain of Marathon. Pheidippides ran to neighboring Sparta, 140 miles away, to ask for the Spartans' aid. Afterwards he sped back to the battle, where he helped defeat the enemy.
Uma Krishnaswami - Children's Literature
Reynolds retells in picture book format the 2,500-year-old story of Pheidippides, the young runner who raced from the plain of Marathon to the city of Sparta to seek help for the Athenian army when they confronted the Persians in war. After returning to the battlefield and helping the Athenians win, the young man then ran to Athens to relay the news of the victory. Reynolds manages to exercise the turn of story to her advantage by making a final connection between the legend and modern marathons, those who take part in them, and those who aspire to do so. Daniel Minter's bold paintings use flat and shaded primary colors accented with rich black strokes that lead the eye. A black-and-white border employs a variation of the Greek key pattern—its mythic and artistic significance sustaining the textual links between ancient Greece and our contemporary world. A detailed afterword provides interesting background and supports the retold legend with sources and contextual material. Taken together with the bibliography that follows, this section goes a long way toward rendering the retelling transparent, pointing out to readers where the author has fictionalized and why. The afterword includes some fascinating facts that older readers will enjoy (e.g., that a Greek woman who showed up at the first modern Olympics in 1896 was refused a place and ran alongside the men but off the course). In an author's note, Reynolds also provides a brief description of the process of researching the story of Pheidippides. 2006, Albert Whitman, Ages 4 to 8.
Editorials
Children's Literature
Reynolds retells in picture book format the 2,500-year-old story of Pheidippides, the young runner who raced from the plain of Marathon to the city of Sparta to seek help for the Athenian army when they confronted the Persians in war. After returning to the battlefield and helping the Athenians win, the young man then ran to Athens to relay the news of the victory. Reynolds manages to exercise the turn of story to her advantage by making a final connection between the legend and modern marathons, those who take part in them, and those who aspire to do so. Daniel Minter's bold paintings use flat and shaded primary colors accented with rich black strokes that lead the eye. A black-and-white border employs a variation of the Greek key pattern—its mythic and artistic significance sustaining the textual links between ancient Greece and our contemporary world. A detailed afterword provides interesting background and supports the retold legend with sources and contextual material. Taken together with the bibliography that follows, this section goes a long way toward rendering the retelling transparent, pointing out to readers where the author has fictionalized and why. The afterword includes some fascinating facts that older readers will enjoy (e.g., that a Greek woman who showed up at the first modern Olympics in 1896 was refused a place and ran alongside the men but off the course). In an author's note, Reynolds also provides a brief description of the process of researching the story of Pheidippides. 2006, Albert Whitman, Ages 4 to 8.—Uma Krishnaswami