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Classic Comparisons

Right away, we should point out that many of the versions listed in these pages are not consistently available here at Exodus. But even if they say "out of stock" the listings still have value! Many of them offer reviews, samples, links to internet versions, and much more. Please let us know if you have questions about anything here!

Once upon a time there was an old blind man with a harp. His name was Homer, and he spoke Greek, and he was really good at composing long poems about the adventures of Greek heroes. He never wrote anything down because that's just not how things were done back then, but other people did, and what Homer sang and they wrote we call The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Much more recently, you (or someone like you) stood in a bookstore and wondered why there were twelve thousand versions of these two relatively short books. Were there sequels? Did people other than Homer come up with the same stories? Or are there just different covers for one or two versions?

It's easy to resolve the problem by simply buying the least expensive copy. And it isn't just the works of Homer that present us with similar decisions: there are multiple editions of Virgil, Dante, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Cervantes' Don Quixote, etc. Does it matter which one you pick? Is cheapest always best?

Well, to quote a great philosopher, the price don't enter into it. The main reason there are so many versions of these books is because there are so many translations, and there are so many translations because foreign or ancient languages can be interpreted in so many ways. Choosing the best one can be exceedingly difficult, as each translation has its own strengths and weaknesses, and one size almost never fits all. With books written and published in English, there might be a wide selection of editions due to editorial changes or a variety of illustrators. Some books have had a number of retellings for children, and our goal is to familiarize you with which ones might best suit your needs.

That's why we've developed the Classic Comparisons pages. The issue here isn't to prove which version is the best—it's to help you figure out which version may become your favorite. Each page includes an original introduction to the text itself, links for further reading and activities online, an exclusive overview, kids' versions, and occasional extras. In the case of translation or editorial differences, we offer a side-by-side comparison chart of several versions, and if it's all about the illustrations, our pages will offer samples of the artwork. 

We started this section with an original dozen titles, but have several more in the works. Please be patient with us as several of those pages are still under construction! We hope you'll find these helpful, and that you'll learn as much from them as we did in making them.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
Did you find this review helpful?
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We Love Translations
Another site with a similar goal! She's done more of the French and Russian lit we have yet to do!
50 Items found Print
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Active Filters: 5th grade (Ages 10-11), Trade Paperback
Adventures of Robin Hood - MP Student Guide
from Memoria Press
for 5th grade
in Memoria Press Literature & Poetry (Location: LITSG-MP)
$13.95
Adventures of Robin Hood - MP Teacher Guide
by Tanya Charlton
from Memoria Press
for 5th grade
in Memoria Press Literature & Poetry (Location: LITSG-MP)
$13.95 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Sir Balin the Ill-Fated
The Knights' Tales Book 4
by Gerald Morris
from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 4th-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$5.94
Adventures of Sir Gawain the True
The Knights' Tales Book 3
by Gerald Morris
from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 4th-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$5.94
Adventures of Sir Givret the Short
The Knights' Tales Book 2
by Gerald Morris
from Sandpiper Books
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$7.61
Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great
The Knights' Tales Book 1
by Gerald Morris
Reprint from Sandpiper Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$6.79
Arabian Nights
by Padraic Colum
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 4th-8th grade
$9.34
Arabian Nights Entertainments
by Andrew Lang
from Dover Publications
for 3rd-5th grade
$16.99
Beowulf
by Michael Morpurgo, illustrated by Michael Foreman
from Walker Books
for 3rd-8th grade
Beowulf the Warrior
by Ian Serraillier
from Bethlehem Books
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 4th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$10.16 $5.60 (1 in stock)
Black Horses for the King
by Anne McCaffrey
from Ballantine Books
for 5th-9th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$3.60 (1 in stock)
Black Horses for the King
by Anne McCaffrey
from Magic Carpey Books
for 5th-9th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$11.99
Black Horses for the King
by Anne McCaffrey
from Del Rey
for 5th-9th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Boys of Blur
by N. D. Wilson
from Random House Books for Young Readers
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$6.79
Boys' and Girls' Herodotus
by John S. White
from American Home-School Publishing
Ancient History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
$23.99
Chaucer Story Book
by Geoffrey Chaucer, retpld by Eva March Tappan
Ill from CreateSpace
for 5th-8th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$7.61
Children's Homer
by Padraic Colum & Willy Pogany
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Greek Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
$9.34 $4.80 (3 in stock)
Coloring Book of the Trojan War: The Iliad Vol. 2
by John K. Anderson
Coloring from Bellerophon Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Ancient Greece (Location: HISW-ANGR)
Herodotus and the Road to History
by Jeanne Bendick
from Bethlehem Books
for 4th-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Iliad (retold)
by Homer & Barbara Leonie Picard
from Oxford University
for 4th-8th grade
Iliad (retold)
Kingfisher Epics
by Nick McCarty, Victor G. Ambrus
from Kingfisher
for 4th-6th grade
In a Dark Wood
by Michael Cadnum
from Puffin Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
King Arthur
by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H.J. Ford
from Dover Publications
for 4th-8th grade
$6.79
Little Pilgrim's Progress
by Helen Taylor
from Moody Press
Allegorical and Moral Stories for 4th-6th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$11.04 $6.40 (1 in stock)
Parsifal's Page
Squire's Tales Book 4
by Gerald Morris
from Houghton Mifflin
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Robin Hood
by David Calcutt, illustrated by Graham Baker-Smith
from Barefoot Books
for 3rd-6th grade
$11.04
Robin Hood and His Merry Outlaws
Dover Evergreen Classics
by J. Walker McSpadden
from Dover Publications
for 4th-8th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$7.64
Robin Hood in Easy-to-Read Type
Dover Children's Thrift Classics
by Bob Blaisdell (reteller), illustrated by Thea Kliros
from Dover Publications
for 3rd-5th grade
$3.40 $1.60 (1 in stock)
Rowan Hood
by Nancy Springer
from Scholastic Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
$2.40 (1 in stock)
Saint George and the Dragon
by Margaret Hodges & Trina Schart Hyman
from Little, Brown & Company
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 2nd-3rd grade
1985 Caldecott Medal winner
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$8.49
Savage Damsel and the Dwarf OSI
Squire's Tales Book 3
by Gerald Morris
from Clarion Books
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (retold)
by Michael Morpurgo
from Candlewick Press
for 2nd-6th grade
Squire's Tale
Squire's Tales Book 1
by Gerald Morris
from Clarion Books
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$8.49
Squire, His Knight, and His Lady
Squire's Tales Book 2
by Gerald Morris
from Houghton Mifflin
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Story of Robin Hood
by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford
from Schocken
for 5th-9th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Story of Robin Hood (retold)
by Robert Leeson, illustrated by Barbara Lofthouse
from Kingfisher
for 4th-6th grade
in Classics Retold (Location: FIC-RET)
Story of the Iliad
by Alfred J. Church, edited and updated by Cyndy Shearer
from Greenleaf Press
Greek Mythology for 5th-8th grade
Tales from the Odyssey, Part 1
by Mary Pope Osborne
1st edition from Disney-Hyperion
for 2nd-5th grade
$7.64
Tales from the Odyssey, Part 2
by Mary Pope Osborne
1st edition from Disney-Hyperion
for 2nd-5th grade
$7.64
Tales of Robin Hood
by Tony Allan, illustrated by Ron Tiner
from Usborne
for 4th-6th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Tales of Robin Hood Told For Children
Magna Children's Classics
by Rose Yeatman Woolf, illustrated by Howard Davie
from Magna Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Taste of Chaucer
by Anne Malcolmson
from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
for 4th-6th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Treasure Island
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2 Paperback
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Norman Price
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 5th-10th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Treasure Island
Usborne Illustrated Originals
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Fran Parreno
from Usborne
Action/Adventure for 5th-9th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 4th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame, Michael Clay Thompson
from Royal Fireworks Press
for 4th-5th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard
from IDW Publishing
for 4th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$16.99
Wind in the Willows
The Scribner Library Books for Young Readers
by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard
1961 renewed copyright from Charles Scribner's Sons
Humorous Animal Fantasy for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Young Lancelot
by Robert D. San Souci
from Yearling
for 1st-5th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Young Robin Hood
by George Manville Fenn
from Salem Ridge Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
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