Series ✦ Penny’s Take
The Giant Book of Myths and Legends
Mike Ashley · 1995
72/100
👍 Worth It
Fifty-plus myths from more than twenty cultures, retold by literary names including Hawthorne, Kingsley, and Andrew Lang, make this a genuinely rich anthology for adults and older students drawn to comparative mythology. The Victorian literary prose adds aesthetic distance, and some tales require a heads-up for violence and morally complex content, but the thematic organization and editorial quality justify the investment for serious readers.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Violence, death, and morally ambiguous behavior across world mythology traditions · Supernatural/polytheistic elements; spirits and deities throughout · Parent preview recommended for readers under 14. We still scored it 72; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety70
Substance / usefulness76
Craft & writing73
Originality52
Evidence & accuracy83
Hype vs delivers79
Age-fit73
👁 Human-eye gut-check72
Penny’s verdict72
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