This work begins with a premise: that parents and teachers harm the development of children’s reading ability by ceasing to read aloud to them after the child learns to read for themselves. In the introduction that follows, Russell invokes the idea of classics as "high" literature. Parents and teachers, he claims, should not merely read any literature; they must specifically "read good literature aloud" – "time honored masterpieces to which the label 'classic’ can be properly applied" (p. 1). The reason for this is that "good literature" allows children to learn "standard English usage". This is explicitly contrasted to the lowbrow culture from which we are supposed to imagine children otherwise acquiring language. The "rock stars, athletes, and television characters children see as heroes" do not apparently employ "standard English usage". (Conversely, Russell actually compares the tale of Jason to the tale of Luke Skywalker at a later point, so not all modern popular culture is necessarily shown to be inappropriate for educational material.)
In the first few pages, therefore, Russell clearly establishes a worldview in which classical material is beloved due to its inherent literary greatness. There is no sense that what is considered good literature might be arbitrary or socially constructed. Stories originally written down in other languages become the guardians of pure English, whilst English language media produced in the modern day is understood to be substandard. Reading classics aloud, Russell asserts, "may be our best hope for re-creating a 'cultural literacy' among America’s schoolchildren" (p. 1). A narrative of decline is posited and Greek myths are offered as potential salvation.
After complaining of changes in the American education system which he considers to have brought about this decline, Russell worries that children no longer understand classical references in culture or language, since the classics are no longer taught. (This connects the work to much earlier anthologies such as those of Kupfer 1897 and Hyde 1904, which spoke in their introductions about the importance of Greek myths in teaching children to understand cultural and literary references in adulthood. Presumably, Kupfer and Hyde were writing for a newly powerful middle class who did not wish to be shown up by the more educated old money, whilst Russell’s concern is for children in general.) He positions myth as necessary to the stimulation of children’s imaginations and even sees his anthology as challenging to the limited imaginings of a child raised in the current education system. His "stories require a more active use of their imagination than they are accustomed to providing, but although their creative powers may have been dulled by monster cartoons…these powers can be resuscitated by having to form a mental picture of someone extracting the teeth from a dragon, for example, or of the way the world would look to someone riding on the back of a flying horse" (p. 4).
Rather in the spirit of Nathaniel Hawthorne in his introductions to A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys and Tanglewood Tales, Russell also presents myth as to some extent understood naturally by children, with adults the ones confused by it. The mixing of Greek and Roman deity names, he believes, is more confusing to adults than children. Adults should therefore not worry greatly about muddling their children with them (Russell’s anthology is unusual in that he uses Greek and Roma deity names interchangeably, seemingly based on whether the ancient source is Greek or Roman).
Unusually, Russell is also open about his use of older anthologies as source material. His sources are the retellings of Bulfinch, Hamilton Wright Mabie, Davidson and Church, texts apparently from his own childhood. He criticises some of the ‘“up-to-date” retellings’ of his own time "that have deities speaking in 'hip' lingo, as though that were the only way to maintain a child’s interest" (p. 5). This trend would, of course, only increase after the publication of this text (e.g. the works of Riordan, McMullan and Harris; as well as the anthologies of Deary 1998, Coats 2002, Townsend 2010, Alexander 2011 and Keith 2016.) He is also scornful of the attempts of children’s TV to draw on mythology.
A significant time commitment is expected from the adult who reads these stories aloud – Russell emphasises that the adult should read over the book themselves prior to reading to the child, plan what time would be suitable for which stories and take time to master pronunciations (p. 10). The time rich parent would be the one most likely to benefit from such instruction – one wonders if Russell had in mind the middle class stay at home mother devoted to her child’s education.
In some ways, the choices this anthology makes resemble those of Bob Blaisdell’s Favorite Greek Myths of six years later. Both include darker stories not typically found in children’s anthologies such as Oedipus and the sacrifice of Iphigenia. (In Blaisdell, Iphigenia is sacrificed, whilst in Russell she is more ambiguously "brought to the altar and taken away to the heavens in a cloud of mist" (p. 162).) Both also have Theseus and Jason genuinely care for Ariadne and Medea respectively and do not include either’s abandonment of their love interests. (In Russell, Ariadne’s abandonment is entirely omitted and the implication is that she and Theseus live happily ever after in Athens.) Both are in some ways adult in tone and include almost no illustrations (Blaisdell) or none at all (Russell). Whilst Blaisdell’s anthology is dark, however, Russell’s is subtly warm in tone without being condescending. Small touches are added in that soften the stories and make the characters more likeable. The writing is generally engaging and in places even charming. For example, after Echo receives her curse, her friends continue to talk to her so that she might repeat their words back and have the pleasure of still hearing her own voice. Daedalus sheds tears of anxiety and paternal love for Icarus as he instructs him in flight. Demeter starves the earth not as punishment but simply because she cannot bear to work without her daughter.
Russell’s approach to Jupiter’s adultery is somewhat inconsistent. In the Echo retelling it is stated that he likes to socialise and play with the nymphs and that Juno resents this because she is jealous of the nymphs’ youth and beauty (pp. 26–27). In the story of Europa, Jupiter has watched Europa, admires her beauty and now wishes to make her a handmaiden. Yet Russell hints further at Jupiter’s true intentions after he brings Europa to Crete, at which point he "showered her with love and with treasures" (p. 45). In the Io retelling, the essential narrative appears to be the same as that of Kupfer (1897): Jupiter befriends Io disguised as a shepherd boy and a jealous Juno comes to investigate. The nature of Jupiter and Io’s relationship, however, is much less innocent than it was in Kupfer. Io is "as much attracted to him as he was to her" (p. 74) and when Juno comes upon them they are "in the midst of a long embrace". By the story of Perseus, Russell seems to have given up entirely on making Jupiter’s relationships with other women non-sexual. Jupiter (now called Zeus) falls in love with Danae and she bears him a son. (The Perseus story, unlike the earlier three retellings, appears in the second part for older children, which perhaps explains this.)
Menelaus and Helen’s relationship is presented as romantic, almost aspirational, as in the later Coats (2002) anthology. Unlike in Coats, however, where Helen chooses Menelaus herself, here the relationship begins in more paternalistic terms. Menelaus is selected from the suitors by Helen’s father because he honours and cares for Helen. A fairly mature idea of resisting lust is shown when Helen initially meets Paris; she desires him but has no interest in pursuing such desire until Aphrodite’s intervention. Rather oddly, Ulysses seeks to avoid the war not because he wants to but because of Penelope’s jealousy of Helen and wish for her husband not to be close to such a beautiful woman whom he previously courted.
