The Children of Odin - Illustrated by Willy Pogany

*The Children of Odin* is one of the best retellings of the Norse myths. Padraic Colum's sparse, elegant, prose makes the stories come alive and is surprisingly modern and very readable. He is reasonably faithful to his primary source, the Elder Edda. After 98 years, the illustrations by Willy Pogany retain their charm. This book was a favorite of the late Ursula K Leguin.Unfortunately, the production of this knockoff is cheap and slip-shod. Binding is glued, not sewn. No copyright/publisher's data page. Illustrators name is on the cover and spine, but amazingly, the author's name is not. (Don't they care?) Paper is not non-acid.. Pages were scanned, and some lines are darker than others.. Margin at the bottom of the page is unaccountably large -- page format must be narrower than the pages they scanned. It's readable, but not what one expects from a hardcover book and a shadow (literally) of the 1920 original.Padraic Colum's work is something children will want to keep and adults will want to read again. Unfortunately, this book will fall apart. But hey, books are disposable, right? Not important like making money.Looks like Pook Press spent about one day on this project. And have the gall to say they are doing us a favor by "saving" this out-of-print book--"exploiting" might be a better word. Were the author or illustrator still living, this could not have happened. But out-of-copyright books are defenseless against such exploitation.OK for a reading copy, but a pale shadow of the 1920 original. Buy the paperback and save some money--or better yet, track down the original.

A classic retelling of ancient myths.

My book arrived today, however it seems to be missing some pages, as it begins on page 15, mid sentence.Amazon, can you fix this?

This is not the complete book. It ends abruptly and omits the concluding sections that tell the story of Siegfried and the twilight of the gods that Wagner made so very famous. Inexplicable and very disappointing!Rotten thing to do to an otherwise wonderfully told and beautifully illustrated account of Norse mythology, probably the best one there is for a non-scholarly audience. Accessible to children but can nevertheless be enjoyed by adults. Happily, the full version (deserving of five stars) is readily available elsewhere. Make sure you get the original with whimsical and appealing illustrations by Willy Pogany. Don't waste your money on this one.