Simon Spence

Theseus Simon Spence

**Double award winner at the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards, for best illustrations and honourable mention in picture books, plus silver medalist at the Moonbeam Book Awards**

Theseus is the sixth book in the Early Myths collection, a series of children's picture books on Greek myth. Each book covers a character from mythology and brings the tale to life through illustrations and story-telling, with inspiration from ancient art and literature. The books are aimed at 4 to 10 year olds, are beautifully designed and easy to read.

Theseus is the tale of a hero who travels to meet his father for the first time, but faces many challenges on the road to Athens. He takes on sneaky Sinis, a wild boar, the wrestler Kerkyon and a giant crab! At the city of Athens he must try to break a curse, cast upon its people by the king of Crete. He volunteers to travel to face the Minotaur and break this spell, before finally returning home to an unexpected piece of news.

For teachers and parents, we have a notes section at the back, describing how our illustrations have been inspired by ancient Greek vase-painting, sculptures, and early literature. The kids don't need to know this aspect to enjoy the tale, but the grown-ups can learn about how we have taken time and care to construct our book, using the early historical sources, rather than simply repeat a generic version of the myth.

Awards for our Early Myths collection:
- Perseus: bronze medal winner at the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards 2014
- Odysseus: honourable mention at the Royal Dragonfly Book Awards 2015
- Odysseus: finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards 2015
- Atalanta: silver medal at the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards 2016
- Atalanta: honourable mention at Purple Dragonfly Book Awards 2016
- Atalanta: finalist at the Readers' Favorite Awards 2016
- Herakles: 1st prize for illustrations and 6+ picture book at the Dragonfly Books Awards 2017
- Herakles: gold award at the Royal Dragonfly Book Awards 2017
- Herakles: silver medalist in the Wishing Shelf Children's Books Awards 2017
- Theseus: best illustrations at Purple Dragonfly Book Awards 2018
- Theseus: honourable Mention in Picture Books (5 and younger category) at the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards 2018
- Theseus: silver medalist at the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards 2018