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Title: Fun. But wildly dissimilar.
Review: In many ways, this Beowulf is a lot of fun for kids. The writing is direct and clear (although there are plenty of vocabulary stretchers). The action is fun. Beowulf's heroism is unquestionable.But, I don't understand why one would publish a Beowulf retelling and stay just close enough to the original to be confusing (as opposed to John Gardner's wonderful Grendel, which told the story from the monster's perspective). The most disturbing divergence was making Unferth a petty bad guy in enamored of evil. In doing so, Nye sacrifices much of the nobility of the original.I don't know if there are other kid-friendly tellings of this story. But, I would look for one of those, first.
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