A new illustrated version of the Odyssey is out, and this is one you will want to read with your child for its incredible illustrations. A raising talent, Neil Packer who has illustrated novels such as 100 Years of Solitude and Catch 22, spent over 5 years working on the Odyssey. The result is pure beauty.

If there were a “Slow Design Movement”, Packer would be its best ambassador. While it took him a few hours to draw some of the simple images, the more complex of the colour pictures took anything up to a month to produce.There are more complex than simple, which makes the average time near to 3 weeks per image. The stylised, sophisticated drawings (80 in total) and the usage of a large palette of bright colours are ideal to (re)educate young eyes too frequently exposed to fast (and cheap) illustrations.
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“Some of the images look like the friezes on the sides of Greek kraters; others are full-color portraits of gaunt warriors with haunted gazes or caricatures of their Bosch-like adversaries. Humor and horror coexist; sirens like patrician socialites lounge disdainfully above the buried skeletons of those they’ve lured to their deaths. Every image seems to have been created with unhurried care; it’s a quiet but monumental piece of work”, says a critic. This Homeric epic, an age-old story  is the perfect gift for children ages 8–up.
Neil Packer Illustration
Neil Packer Illustration
Neil Packer Illustration
Neil Packer Illustration
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US Editor : candlewick.com – UK Editor : www.walker.co.uk – Available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com
illustrated Neil Packer Odyssey