Into the World of the Dead: Astonishing Adventures in the Underworld Book

A tour of the underworld by retelling legends from around the world. Illustrated by dramatic artwork and arranged thematically, the reader meets everyone from rulers and guardians to those who went down and came back.

Eric NortonCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal

Gr 5-8
This book should prove enticing for both myth lovers and seekers of scary stories. Boughn retells stories from many cultures on every continent except South America, including quite a few from Mesoamerica, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Readers will find heroes who have traveled to and returned from the underworld as well as the gods and monsters who dwell there. Full-color and black-and-white illustrations, including reproductions, photos, and plenty of graphics of skulls, appear on every page. The author does make some odd selections. He includes a few passages on magical realms populated by fairy folk rather than the dead, a page about a British Web site showing photos of supposed doors to hell located in the United Kingdom, and the Jabberwock in the section on monsters of the underworld. He treats stories from Christianity and the other Abrahamic religions with equal weight to those of Gilgamesh and Anansi. Overall, this is a book that many young people may find appealing.