Gr. 6-9. The more things change, the more things stay the same--an aphorism this book proves very well. Newbery award-winner Fleischman goes right to today's headlines and shows that the ancient world and our own are not so very different at all. He retells Homer's tale of the Trojan War, The Iliad, in a brisk narrative that will capture kids' attention. But the interesting thing about this book is the immediacy of its design. Each text page, simply bordered, faces a collage of recent newspaper articles that relate to what's going on in the story. For instance, the gods' contest at which Paris chooses the most beautiful woman is faced by a lace-bordered newspaper article about the Miss Universe contest, complete with a photo of Miss New Mexico being crowned. The Greeks' final destruction of Troy is complemented by a collage of articles about the human cost of war, including a sepia-toned picture of a child crying bitterly. One can only imagine the work that must have gone into finding the appropriate articles to match the telling. One problem with the design is that often only the headlines of the articles can be read. Too bad--they intrigue enough to make kids want to read more. Obviously, there are myriad uses for this book, and teachers and librarians should have fun finding them. As Fleischman says, "My best teachers in school were those who could take a seemingly remote topic and show its connection to my own life." He's done that here.

In this adroit, concise adaptation, Fleischman juxtaposes twentieth-century news items with the Trojan War. As the ancient story unfolds, present-day events are revealed on a facing page of each spread through reproductions of actual clippings, arranged within handsome collages in black, white, and sepia tones--providing a stirring if overt message. This updated volume includes ten new clippings. Reading list.

The tragic tale of the Trojan War is retold in this adroit, concise adaptation that reveals truths, particularly about human nature, as the author juxtaposes twentieth-century news items with events of the Trojan War. As the ancient story unfolds, present-day events are revealed on a facing page of each spread through reproductions of actual clippings, arranged within handsome collages in black, white, and sepia tones -- providing a stirring if overt message.

Perhaps the ultimate model for making history relevant: Fleischman (A Fate Totally Worse Than Death, 1995, etc.) retells the major events of the Trojan War, while the accompanying collages show photos and newspaper articles and headlines from this century that in some way are similar to those ancient events. The idea is so immediate and arresting that readers may wonder why it's never been tried before. The parallels Fleischman finds are sometimes obvious, sometimes clever, occasionally brilliant, and always thought-provoking. The tinted collages alone are neither entirely artistic nor totally useful; all the articles are cut off and some are hard to read, and while references are given in the back, few children will have the perseverance to look them up. The art makes the link and then moves on, but such purposeful editing of the modern incidents makes more of a gimmick of the idea than may be intended. No sources are given for the Trojan War events, which becomes noticeable when the author uses a variant of the Odysseus story that is not from Homer. Despite these minor drawbacks, this is a superb and often inspiring work.

Newbery Medalist Fleischman (Bull Run; Joyful Noise!) turns the Trojan War into an occasion for social studies, with the result that his audience may have to sacrifice some of the pleasures of reading in exchange for a fresh approach to history or current events. In this beautifully designed book, the author juxtaposes an unusually elegant redaction of the legendary conflagration at Troy with newspaper clippings that report events ranging from World War I to sociological experiments on babies' reactions to unattractive women. Each page of text faces such clippings, selected to highlight relevant themes. For example, the passage about the reunion of Paris, abandoned at birth, with his father, King Priam, appears opposite the beginning of a 1988 article from the Washington Post about a woman's search for the son she gave up for adoption in 1967. Other spreads refer to 20th-century wars (the two world wars, Vietnam, the Falklands, Korea, Cyprus, the Middle East) in support of Fleisch- man's thesis that war is futile: he concludes his abridged epic with the question "Who could tell the victor from the vanquished?" Laid against sophisticated graphic backgrounds, the clippings become handsome collages. Even so, the combination of elements remains inharmonious--the collages invite readers to digress from the story rather than determine its meanings for themselves. Instead of offering individual readers an unsupervised literary experience, this experiment succeeds chiefly as a catalyst for class discussion. Ages 12-15. (Mar.)

Gr 6-9--In this unusual and unsettling retelling of Homer's Iliad, the events of the Trojan War are juxtaposed against modern newspaper headlines. On the left-hand pages, Agamemnon and Menelaus lead the Greeks against the Trojans and the hero Achilles sulks in his tent; collages of newsprint and grainy photos reporting recent wars and political crises fill the facing pages. The parallels that are drawn vary from appropriate to clever to ludicrous. For example, stalemate in the war between Greeks and Trojans is compared to stalemate in the Afghan war of 1987. Nancy Reagan's reliance on astrologers provides a counterpoint to the reading of omens by the ancient seer Calchas. Jarringly, the battle between Achilles and Hector is matched with the death of a homeboy in an inner- city shoot-out, and the destruction of Troy evokes headlines about the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. The idea of finding common behavior among human beings across the millennia is an intriguing challenge and adults reading the book with students may find many issues to discuss. However, many of the news clippings, chosen from the last four decades of modern history, will be unrecognized by today's teens. The heroism of Homer's ancient warriors, driven by duty, honor, pride and the will of the gods, is lost here. What comes across in Fleischman's fine retelling is the universality of the human qualities of greed, treachery, and violence. It may ring true in our 20th-century consciousness, but it is not Homer.--Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ