Librarians and teachers should note, though, that Mucci has kept some violence, albeit slightly muted, and removed much of the sexuality, whereas Hinds’ keeps both in their full doses. This makes his adaptation a better introduction to the work for younger readers or for those who are more reluctant to tackle the full work. He also chose to slightly modernize some of the speech. Mucci’s adaptation is much more abridged, keeping as much of the action as possible and removing some of the longer, more political elements which can slow down the reading. Candlewick has an online teacher’s guide to assist with classroom use of Hinds’ adaptation. Because Hinds chose to make his story as close an adaptation as possible, even down to researching various translations of the work, his graphic novel is a good companion to a classroom or book club study of the original poem, though Hinds does not have his characters speak in poetic form. This can lead to confusion for new readers who mi ght wonder why Odysseus doesn’t show up until about fifty pages into his own story, but, as with the original work, it does allow the elements of the story to come together smoothly in the end with Odysseus’ son Telemachus bookending the tale.

Hinds’ adaptation takes the more direct route, starting where Homer’s poem started and moving straight through without cutting out elements, other than when he substitutes action drawings for words. Without that the tales are still interesting, but not as easy to follow. That said, both works also assume a basic knowledge of who Odysseus is, what the Trojan War was, and who the Greek gods are. Both works also feature fantastic art, drawings which suck readers into the story and use the comic medium’s unique blend of words and art to the best of their abilities. Candlewick, October 2010, ISBN 978-0-7636-4266-2īoth adaptations take Homer’s work seriously, highlighting the capricious nature of the gods, the frustrations of Odysseus and his crew, and the dangers of their voyage.

The odyssey hinds