The Last Quest of Gilgamesh

The kids loved this trilogy and appreciated the message of friendship that it presents. I had bought all 3 thinking I would spread the story out over weeks, but ended up having to read all 3 within 2 days. This was used for the homeschooling of our two 9 years olds as we read the history of the Ancient World. As one of the first (if not the very first) pieces of literature ever recorded, it is important to read from a historical and messaging perspective as well as to give a glimpse into the universality of many stories found in religions. I hesitated buying this for 4th graders thinking it might be too simple, but actually it is not. Highly recommended version of the Gilgamesh trilogy.

Lo compré con la intensión de tener por fin los 3 tomos. La calidad es muy buena, las imágenes, ni qué decir, hermosas. Lo que no me gustó es que sí son muy delgados, son tipo cuadernillo. Aunque estoy consciente de que es para niños. Yo lo compré ya que leí el tomo uno cuando era puberto y me gustó mucho.

It was enjoyable to read Zeman's interpretation of Mesopotamian myths. She did a great job retelling the story in an interesting yet child-appropriate way. We got all three books in the series and read them all on evening. The illustrations are beautiful. A hardcover would make a beautiful gift if they were not so expensive and hard to find.

An excellent #2 read to the story of King Gilgamesh of how the true value of friendship and popularity really means. A good way of teaching children of good morals and having a good character.

At first I wasn't big on this series. It was highly recommended, but to be honest I'm just not into the whole fantasy/ancient world stories: the monsters and bulls from heaven, the Ishtar goddess who turns into a serpent, the whole mythical thing. Sorry, I know that's really anti-educational of me to say. I think my biggest concern with this series, however, was that it would be too dark. Mesopotamia is. I was a little afraid that the tragedy would be too weighty for the kids, and the whole color scheme, descending into hell, being smited by the gods for the purpose of revenge, etc, would just be too much for my lower elementary kids. And yet I caved into the pressure. To be honest, there's not very much in this genre of Mesopotamia for kids--at least not in literature. And my kids are too young for the other popular Epic of G resources out there. So we dove in. And I changed my mind. It is dark and tragedic, but it is tastefully done and ends on a happy enough note/good moral lesson. There are some fantastical elements that I'm not sure my kids know what to do with (i.e. the souls of the dead people come back as birds and sometimes can be seen by those who are alive, and sometimes cannot)... but even my five year old really liked the whole series. You can't argue with that. They have asked for it over and over again. So I still wish the author had a more conservative view of the subject, but she is an expert who did well in replicating the story for kids. She didn't tamper with the details or ideology, which I really appreciated. And the part about Utnapishtam and the Flood controversy was handled well. I think I would have cut out the part about Shamhat and Enkidu "exploring the ways of love together" and maybe a couple other phrases, but it's hard to quibble on a larger level.