This book didn't start out well with me due to the title. A book on Indian Mythology would be quite long as there are dozens of recognized religions in India that have a large sized following including Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and so forth. It's true that most are Hindu but it's like writing a book on American mythology and only discussing early biblical parables.

Anyway, that aside, it's a decent book. It starts out with an introduction to mythology, the history of India, and the roots of Hinduism. There is a brief discussion of reincarnation, Dharma, and the caste system. In regard to the latter, the text is very neutral, including only a couple of phrases about people fighting it as always and a picture of a low caste man who barely makes a living. The rest of the text is very positive about everything so perhaps this neutrality is to be taken as a sign of disapproval. Take it as you will.

Then the book moves on to introduce some of the key players in the Hindu pantheon including Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Kali as well as less well known Indra, Durga, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Rama and of course Krishna. The descriptions include a little historical context, i.e., how popular they were in worship throughout history, as well as brief relationships to other gods and sometimes a couple of sentences of a popular story about the deity.

The artwork is nice, representing a variety of traditions, media and skills. Many are clearly quite old as they are just stock images probably taken at palaces, temples and museums in India. There is a glossary section in the back that is good for the most part but is just silly in others. For example, in the first section of the book, when introducing the idea of myth, the writer mentions Luke Skywalker (quite a stretch but obviously geared to hook kids). Luke Skywalker appears in the glossary.

I like the idea of this book, introducing the vast and complicated mythos of Hinduism to children but I don't think this book succeeds very well. It tries to tell too much and gets confused about its target audience which I would guess is about 3rd to 5th grade reading levels. For example, there is a section on creation stories which is only one page long and includes three versions. Considering this is a large print book for kids, I feel this is way to many versions with too little detail. Another example is that I don't think children really care that Brahma grew less popular over time because he wasn't as exciting.

I think this age group would prefer stories over general information. I think the introductory sections could have been cut down, the index removed (for a 32 page large print book? Really?) and the glossary white space reduced so it took up only one page. Then the multiple versions of stories could be removed and more space given to fuller versions of stories for all of the gods mentioned.

This isn't a bad book but if you are looking for a children's book on Hindu Mythology, I recommend[b:Tales from India|11533338|Tales from India|Jamila Gavin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320566363s/11533338.jpg|16471689] by [a:Jamila Gavin|43020|Jamila Gavin|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1308165170p2/43020.jpg]. (I don't find the title problematic because the book is just that: tales from India.) I gave that one five stars. ( )

This book didn't start out well with me due to the title. A book on Indian Mythology would be quite long as there are dozens of recognized religions in India that have a large sized following including Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and so forth. It's true that most are Hindu but it's like writing a book on American mythology and only discussing early biblical parables.

Anyway, that aside, it's a decent book. It starts out with an introduction to mythology, the history of India, and the roots of Hinduism. There is a brief discussion of reincarnation, Dharma, and the caste system. In regard to the latter, the text is very neutral, including only a couple of phrases about people fighting it as always and a picture of a low caste man who barely makes a living. The rest of the text is very positive about everything so perhaps this neutrality is to be taken as a sign of disapproval. Take it as you will.

Then the book moves on to introduce some of the key players in the Hindu pantheon including Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Kali as well as less well known Indra, Durga, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Rama and of course Krishna. The descriptions include a little historical context, i.e., how popular they were in worship throughout history, as well as brief relationships to other gods and sometimes a couple of sentences of a popular story about the deity.

The artwork is nice, representing a variety of traditions, media and skills. Many are clearly quite old as they are just stock images probably taken at palaces, temples and museums in India. There is a glossary section in the back that is good for the most part but is just silly in others. For example, in the first section of the book, when introducing the idea of myth, the writer mentions Luke Skywalker (quite a stretch but obviously geared to hook kids). Luke Skywalker appears in the glossary.

I like the idea of this book, introducing the vast and complicated mythos of Hinduism to children but I don't think this book succeeds very well. It tries to tell too much and gets confused about its target audience which I would guess is about 3rd to 5th grade reading levels. For example, there is a section on creation stories which is only one page long and includes three versions. Considering this is a large print book for kids, I feel this is way to many versions with too little detail. Another example is that I don't think children really care that Brahma grew less popular over time because he wasn't as exciting.

I think this age group would prefer stories over general information. I think the introductory sections could have been cut down, the index removed (for a 32 page large print book? Really?) and the glossary white space reduced so it took up only one page. Then the multiple versions of stories could be removed and more space given to fuller versions of stories for all of the gods mentioned.

This isn't a bad book but if you are looking for a children's book on Hindu Mythology, I recommend[b:Tales from India|11533338|Tales from India|Jamila Gavin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320566363s/11533338.jpg|16471689] by [a:Jamila Gavin|43020|Jamila Gavin|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1308165170p2/43020.jpg]. (I don't find the title problematic because the book is just that: tales from India.) I gave that one five stars. ( )