The Iliad for Boys and Girls

Long ago, the people of Sparta had promised that they would help the King get his daughter back if she were ever kidnapped. Now the King of Troy, Paris, has kidnapped Fair Helen, and both kingdoms go to war.

Alfred J. Church wrote many books looking at classical literature, but is especially well known for his re-telling of classic books in a style so that younger readers may follow the story. The Iliad for Boys and Girls is a retelling of Homer’s Iliad, centred around the events of the siege of Troy during the final year.

Set in the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of Ilium by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege.