The Epic poem of Beowulf gets a new retelling in a kid friendly manner. In this version children are the heroes fighting against the forces of adulthood. I will have this in my classroom as a free reading option. I can also see me using the characters in this story for some problem writing. This will also be great start to the literature that will be introduced to them in high school. ( )

Ok, adding my adult son's reaction, as he loved it even more than I did. He says it's a book to own. Read it aloud to your child over & over: as they ask for it again & again, and through the years. When younger, mainly you're reading for the sounds and broad ideas. Gradually help them understand the vocabulary. When they're older they'll get more & more out of it.
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Anybody might love this. I'd offer it first to parents who have studied but mostly forgotten [b:Beowulf|52358|Beowulf A Verse Translation (Norton Critical Editions)|Seamus Heaney|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388446495l/52358._SY75_.jpg|189503]. Then to kids about age 11 who don't actually want to grow up to be teenagers. Then to everyone else.

Yes, I'd even recommend it to those children age 5, the age of the characters, if they have a sympathetic mentor reading the savage poetry aloud to them for the sound even more than for vocabulary words.

I still wish that I could find the translation that I read in high school, almost half a century ago, because I still remember the driving rhythm and alliteration of one small bit. Weinersmith has totally captured that appeal, but of course with different words. (In his excellent author's note, he offers the leads to look for Chickering, or possibly Liuzza.)

Btw, if you like this, also consider [a:Jerry Spinelli|12696|Jerry Spinelli|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1201118632p2/12696.jpg]'s [b:Hokey Pokey|13642591|Hokey Pokey|Jerry Spinelli|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348791506l/13642591._SX50_.jpg|19257831].

Now, to read an entirely different book, that has the same author's name on the cover, [b:Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything|34490192|Soonish Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything|Kelly Weinersmith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1488834408l/34490192._SX50_.jpg|55611925]. (!) ( )

This is a retelling of the first part of Beowulf in comics form, in modernized English with vaguely Anglo-Saxon alliteration—except it's all about kids. The mead hall is awesome treehouse, Grendel is a mean teacher who hates fun, the warriors are all kids playing outside. It's very well done in the sense you have to admire the cleverness of it all... but I feel like my admiration is entirely technical; I was never swept up in this. Like, wow what a good job they did... but why? But still, neat stuff.

I have always loved the story of Beowulf (since I was a little girl and read the Wishbone adaptation, and then requested of my mother that we get a copy from the library with as close to the original as possible - she obliged and I was presented with a copy with the Old English alongside a modern, if very archaic-feeling, translation), and so I was immediately intrigued when I heard about Bea Wulf.

For how drastically (naturally) it is adapted, it is startlingly close in feeling to the epic I know, with an excellent blend of easy-to-read modern English with rhythms and styles and kennings reminiscent of Beowulf's origins (at least so far as we have them), and a story that - similar to Beowulf, perhaps, if in a new guise - requires only that you ride the adventure, enjoy, and don't quibble over reality when it gets in the way of a good story. ( )

Cute, interesting, extremely well done, but it seems to be written more for adults than actual children? ( )