Trojan Horse, The - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689505426 ISBN 13: 9780689505423

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry, 1992

Synopsis

A retelling of the famous Greek myth follows Helen, the beautiful wife of King Menelaus of Greece, as she falls in love with Paris, the son of the King of Troy, and flees with him to Troy, an act that begins the Trojan War.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-6-- Paris and Helen, the ten-year siege and battles, the ruse of the horse, Sinon, Laocoon, the Greeks' surreptitious return, the destruction of the city, and the exile of her people--all figure in this gracefully compact and dramatically compelling presentation of the end of the Trojan War. Hutton preserves a sense of Homeric scale and complexity both in text and in pictures. The forgotten lovers who started it all are poignantly evoked at the end; the frivolity of the huge, toylike horse, with its faint archaic smile is contrasted with the utter ruin of the city, graphically suggested in a masterly double-page spread of the massive, breached walls, fire within, a thick column of smoke and a thin column of exiles stretching into the distance. Hutton sacrifices some of his usual tender blues and lush greens for the pale yellow, umber, and lavender of the Anatolian plain. Some may find the horse insufficiently noble, but its meaning echoes in the repeated motif of a child's wheeled wooden toy, last seen overturned and abandoned in the rout. The Trojan War is introduced as being neither heroic nor despicable, but as an epic memory brought vividly and unforgettably to life. --Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Again, Hutton's verbal and visual simplicity will evoke complex responses. In a brief retelling of Troy's fall, he offers a subtle comment on the whole subject of war: Paris, fleeing with Helen (they look more like dancers than fugitives), looks out at the reader with a knowing Archaic smile that reappears on the faces of the serpents as they crush the life out of Laoco”n and his sons, and again on the huge, round-bellied horse. Some of the Trojans' clothing has a modern look, and the text closes on an ironic note--the horse towers over the ruined city, but ``Everyone had forgotten Paris and Helen, who had started it all.'' Occasionally, the spareness of the illustrations backfires--in one scene the Trojans are pulling the horse toward a gate that looks small rather than distant--but the focus of the action is always plain, even when the human figures are dwarfed by the city walls. A thoughtful, multilayered introduction to this ancient tale. (Picture book. 6-9) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0689505426
• ISBN 13: 9780689505423
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 33
• Illustrator: Warwick Hutton