Sandra Martin Arnold

Child of the Sun is the second in the Legends of the World series for us and I quite like these...they are simple (most seem to come in right around 32 or so pages) with great colorful illustrations (ethnically inclined to match the originating culture the story is drawn from), engaging and even come with a little one or two page description at the back of the book about the country of origin (with map even), which I think is great because we can use our wall maps to point out the location and talk about it's climate, how far away it is and such.

In this particular legend, you get the reason why we sometimes have lunar eclipses (according to Cuban legend) in the form of a story of how the brother (Sun) and sister (Moon) are asked by Mother Eath to take turns ruling the sky and watching over the earth...we discover how the first people came about and see what the jealous and somewhat selfish Sun does when he feels he's not getting the attention he deserves. Children will delight in seeing how the animals, the Wind and the Moon work to help the first people and how ultimately the Moon comes to eclipse the Sun for a short time! I'd never heard this particular tale and thought it was easy to understand but also complex enough to engage a range of ages and appeal to both boys and girls!

I think this series is a great basic introduction to a wide array of stories from many cultures the world over...a jumping off point also for kids to research more into the culture and mythology of any given place. I'd recommend this for introducing young children to mythology and folklore. The age range cited is 9-12 which is probably the range of kids who would most appreciate and benefit from the story and additional information provided...but even younger kids (say 5-8) will love the stories and vivid, colorful illustrations...the stores aren't so complex or long that they will lose interest in them. I would definitely buy this for my permanent collection and hope to read more from this series soon!… (mer)